HEXAGRAM 1 THE CREATIVE
The first and second hexagrams are essentially the same. That is, the first hexagram remains closest in
spirit to the direction of the second hexagram because there is neither projection nor reflection. There is
simply the spontaneous release of direction as the expression of self. Here in the first gate we are dealing
with a role gate. We have six role gates: two of them in the sacral center and four of them in the G. Three
of the four gates in the G are part of the cross of the Sphinx. The 10th gate is part of the Vessel of Love.
Whenever you see a role gate in somebody's design, you know right away that this is something that
dominates as a theme for them, to live out the essence or the nature of that role. The role that is inherent
in the first hexagram is to express uniqueness. In the crudest language, it is simply to express mutation.
By expressing uniqueness and mutation, we are speaking of the same thing. This is the difference that is
always possible in the individual.
In the first hexagram, like in the second, we have the repetition above the line of this term, "primal".
These are primal forces. They divide the yin and yang of the wheel: the six yin lines in The Receptive
(Hexagram 2) and the six yang lines in The Creative.
Creation as a primal force. We have receptivity as a primal base and creation as a primal force. The
energy potential to manifest inspiration without limitation. 'Potential' is a keyword because so many
things are going to be necessary. To manifest inspiration without limitation' is a very important term to
grasp. Mutation knows no boundary. Mutation follows on structure and order. Mutation is something that
simply jumps. Remember, everything that has to do with the 1 and the 2 is all rooted in this center: tantric
movement in that we have this pulsing of the individual process, the mutative pulse, the on and the off.
The most important thing for anybody who carries the first gate is the recognition that the first gate does
not have to be best. To be best is collective. When there is nothing new, everybody is competing to see
who can be best. But when there is something new, no best exists. It is just new. Individuality always
brings what is new and as such it cannot lead, it cannot project, it cannot be the witness, and it cannot
reflect. It can only live out that nature. That is why, with energy, the potential to manifest inspiration is
unlimited because the mutation transcends or can transcend limitation.
1.1 Creation is independent of will
The first line always speaks for the nature of the hexagram. Here we have the relationship between the
self and the ego. The first thing we hear is that Creation is independent of will. Right away you have this
keynote that says: look, this is not about what your ego is doing. This is not about your ego claiming that
it is a creative font. The ego is just a motor. Unique direction is not about willpower: "I'll do something
nobody else has ever done." Only somebody collective can say something dumb like that because to do
something that nobody else has ever done is a mutation and it can only happen. We cannot create it. It is
independent of will.
The Moon exalted as the symbol of adaptation. Time is everything. This is so important to understand
about mutation. It follows its own law. You have to wait for it and there is nothing that you can do.
Remember that this is a first line. It is not transpersonal. It does not know that there is an 8th gate on the
other side that is ready to make a contribution. It does not know that it can make that contribution. There
is just this deep impulse to express one's uniqueness. Time is everything.
Uranus in detriment. Instability leads to distortion. Here, patience is a virtue and revolution a vice. In the
white book, the Uranus in detriment is: Creative instability unless there is patience. That is much more
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clearly stated there. In other words, you can't be an example right away. So many individuals go through
life trying to be like the collective until that moment of mutation. You have to be patient. If you are, it
will come. The moment you try to control it, the moment you try to drive it with willpower, then you
become unstable.
I have been creative all of my life. Every time my big ego tried to tell me that it was time to create, I
would end up with enormous frustration. In those moments where the last thing on earth I want to do is to
create anything, I will be driven to do it because that is the mechanism. You learn in time. Patience is a
great teacher. Revolution, the desire out of the ego to express creativity, and to do it when you want to do
it, leads to distortion. I have my South Node there. Time is everything. I had to wait nearly 40 years.
1.2 Love is light
With individuality, we are dealing with a number of things. First of all, we are dealing with people that
are not designed to be interfered with. In individual gates, you do not allow anybody to interfere. We are
in the lower trigram here, so the individual here does not even expect that there is somebody that is going
to interfere.
The other thing is that all individuality suffers from the chemistry of melancholy. All individuality is
rooted in a happy and a sad cycle. Unique, individual expression or mutation is not something that
happens all the time, every day. There is a process built into the foundation that says that this is
something that has to be waited for and, in waiting, there can be a great deal of turmoil.
When you come to the second line, it is very much involved in itself and in being what it is: being
different. Somebody looks inside and sees that difference. In seeing it, the second line can be interfered
with and brought out of their individual process.
Here we have Love is light. What a lovely line. Venus exalted as a symbol of beauty. Remember, so
much about direction has to do with beauty. There is a joke in this. Everybody knows that beauty is in the
eye of the beholder. One person's rose is another person's cow-pie. That is the way things are. So we have
this subjectivity that we are all looking for. What is beauty? What is the beautiful way? What appears to
be the beautiful way for some is not necessarily the way for others.
The required harmony between established values and ideals that enriches inspiration. The established
value is simply to be oneself without interference and to fulfill one's life. The ideal is to maintain that
capacity for individual expression. However, the 1.2's don't know that like the naturals in the 2.2. They
just live that until somebody interferes because that will always happen to them.
On the other side, the Mars side, again we have the presence of the ego force trying to step in. Desires and
passions have their place but not at the expense of Creation. In other words, desire and passion have their
place. Save desire and passion for your lover or for whatever it is, but to desire to be unique or to put all
your passion in being unique is misplaced and always moody.
In the white book: Self expression conditioned by ideals and values; or Self expression limited by desires
and passions. In both cases, please understand something: the way in which this line will work is deeply
connected to who this being will meet in their life because there are those people that will deeply interfere
with that process. After all, this is a very powerful force. It is a penetrating force. There are those people
that love to take that penetrating force and manifest it, bring it out. The second line, because it does not
know that it is unique, is subject to being cranked up, to being pumped up, to having the ego built up:
"You are really unique. You are really terrific. You have to put your desire and passion to this." They are
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being interfered with instead of being left alone inside their lit room. Whenever you are dealing with
individuality, the more you let these people alone and do not interfere, the better it is going to be.
Look at your own design, at any individual gate or channel you have. That is the, one place in your life
where nobody has a right to interfere. The moment you let them interfere, a very important quality of
what you are as a being gets lost. Individuality is not here to be interfered with. The collective is about
sharing. Individuality is about ultimate empowerment.
1.3 The energy to sustain creative work
If you were a bookmaker and you were doing some gambling on who was going to be a mutative success
and you had all the examples of the first gate and the various lines, the first thing to recognize is that there
is a joke. The second and the fifth line normally are lines that can be very successful: the second because
its quality is seen by others and therefore it is recognized, and the fifth because others will always project
the best possibilities onto the fifth, at least at the beginning. Under normal circumstances one would think
that the second and the fifth line of the first hexagram would in fact be the ones that are the most
mutative. It is not true. They are deeply handicapped because they, more than any of the other lines, bring
interference into their lives. If you are going to make a bet, you can bet on the first, third and fourth. Sixth
lines, we never know. In the first, third or fourth, there is always the possibility for mutation because they
are much better equipped to keep the outside from interfering.
The third line is called: The energy to sustain creative work. Mars exalted as the symbol of a profound
need for self-expression. Because what happens to these people is the trial and error process and because
they do not know what is on the other side, they learn about interference. Because they have the capacity
to adapt, they can learn from that interference. They have the Martian energy to keep pushing through and
they will not let the interference get in the way. This is the first side.
When you come to the other side, to the Earth in detriment: Material forces can disrupt creativity and lead
to overambition. These are people who are actually very talented and who never get to fulfill the potential
of their real talent because they get pulled into commercial possibilities, i.e. somebody who is struggling
to be a legitimate painter who needs money, gets a job as a graphic artist and ends up being caught up in
the world buying televisions, cars, mortgages, vacations and so on, and sells out their uniqueness to the
mundane plane. This is the other side. Material forces can disrupt creativity and lead to over-ambition.
So, in the third line, the exalted side can get past the interference even though it meets it and, in meeting
it, it learns a lot because it learns to recognize what happens to its creative process when it is interfered
with. Because of the Martian quality, it can keep on moving through. But on the other side, materialism
disrupts creativity. The moment that you give a young painter 100 dollars for a canvas, you
instantaneously change the way they produce their art because the materialism, if they have the detriment,
is just going to pull them away from continuing their unique mutative process.
One of the most common scenarios in our V*stern world is to have so many young, creative people that
have been totally fucked up by money. It is amazing how many careers have been destroyed by easy
money. Whether we talk about artists, actors or rock n' roll stars. This is part of the theme of direction, to
wait for the right timing.
The second and the third lines have similar problems in dealing with the outside, but the third is better
equipped because it can adapt. The lower trigram in and of itself has a great deal of difficulty with trying
to keep interference away. By the way, there is such a thing as positive interference. This is not to say that
all interference is negative, like what the third line learns from being interfered with. There is a Chinese
saying: good news, bad news, who knows? The person that interferes with you may turn you onto a
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different track where mutation can take place. We have strange allies in life but interference is the main
theme here.
1.4 Aloneness as the medium of creativity
When we come to the upper trigram, we come to a very special fourth line. The fourth line has a harmony
to the first line and what we learned in the first line is that creation is independent of will, not only the
will of the artist but the will of others and their interference as well. Here we have the transpersonal
harmony to that. In other words, what you have in the fourth line is the recognition that there is an 8th
gate at the other end and that the contribution can be made. The recognition of what is on the other side,
something very deep, is at work here.
This line is called: Aloneness as the medium of creativity, not 'interference as the medium of creativity'.
The fourth line will externalize that in a one-tracked way. Fourth lines can be so very successful and can
bring mutation into the world because they are one-tracked in recognizing the value of aloneness. The line
says: aloneness as the medium of creativity, not as the medium for contribution, just for the creativity. It
is clear that when one has to be creative, one needs to be alone. That does not mean that one has to be
alone one's entire life. It means that only the creativity can not be interfered with.
The tension of inner light. That is the overview. Think about what the real creative process is. The real
creative process is to build that tension over a life-time. It is an inner tension because the creative process
requires tension and because you have to wait for those moments in which the mutation really works.
The Earth exalted as a symbol of a personal perspective manifested outside of influence. Jupiter in
detriment. Where the potential magic of inspiration is diluted. This is a very bizarre line because as far as
I can tell, there are only two lines in the whole book, 1.4 and 1.6, where you have Jupiter in detriment and
there is no explanation given. Nothing.
The first thing to realize in the aloneness: creativity must develop outside of influence. What happens in
the detriment is not that these people give up the aloneness for their creativity, what happens is that once
they have the mutation, they become fixed on externalizing it and they give up further possibilities of
mutation. An example: let's say there is somebody who has written something and it is really good and
they want to get it out in the world. They will stop writing and they will spend their time, their creative
energy, trying to get somebody to recognize it and to be very fixed on getting it out into the world. Or
they write other books following the same recipe, the same theme, endlessly.
In the white book there is an explanation of it: The need to influence that abandons aloneness and limits
creativity. Please understand, it does not mean that they are different than the exalted in terms of not
allowing people to influence them. They don't. They end up getting influenced in trying to bring out into
the world what they have, not the creativity itself. They get caught up in marketing, in trying to get things
out and they lose their creative feel. In order for them to get back to their creativity they have to go back
into their aloneness.
1.5 The energy to attract society
This is one of these fifth lines that are very difficult, as I mentioned earlier. Here you have the projection
that is coming from everyone: this is the talented one. The moment that there is this constant projection,
there is all kinds of interference. "You are so talented. Why don't you do something?" Fifth lines always
present this possibility. In other words, fifth lines can be an enormous advantage in life. If you look at
your own fifth lines, you realize that this is where people are projecting on you. You will always get the
positive projection before you get the negative. That is true of all fifth lines. Everybody looks at a fifth
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line and is hoping for the best out of that fifth line. When they get disappointed, then they project the
other way but you are always given the benefit with a fifth line.
In the fifth line of the first hexagram, this assumption that one is creative is very attractive to society.
Society likes to know that there are those creative, mutative forces around. It is not necessarily conducive
to creativity because it is always pulling interference.
Mars exalted for its powerful ego endurance. The only thing that is left in the fifth line is that everybody
is coming to the fifth line saying, "You have such talent" and they end up just riding this ego field. When
you see these people you see them on television, on game shows. These are the kind of people that did
something once, long ago, that everybody at the time projected was really talented and they never did a
bloody thing ever again, but they made a living of being considered creative ever since. Television is full
of these people. Life is too, by the way.
The other side is the Uranus in detriment, where eccentricity can handicap endurance. This is the example
of Oscar Wilde. He did not give his energy to his talent, but to his life. (The actual quote is: "I gave my
talent to my life, not my art.") We are dealing with a freak circuit here. We are dealing with individuality;
we are dealing with the outsider and what happens to these people is that they try to just live what the
outside world wants, which is to be like a creative person. Society has created the illusion of what a
creative person is. Usually they are poor drunks or have terrible problems with women, beat their
children, steal money or take drugs but do manage to produce every once in a while things of beauty that
everyone appreciates. If you do not really have the depth or the skills, you can still play the role. It is a
role gate, after all.
These people with the 1 .5 in detriment are out there playing the creative role and everybody is accepting
that, except that they get more and more eccentric to get the attention. All individuality is seeking
attention. The more eccentric they become, the sooner the whole game will crash. Then they are famous
has-beens. They used to be creative; they are not anymore. The endurance is that they put up with the
interference. They have no choice. They attract society. They can be very valuable in the sense that,
because they attract society, they can get mutation out into the world. Unfortunately for them, that
attraction comes so quickly in life that they rarely get a chance to mature as creative forces. So what they
end up doing is just being able to handle through the ego those forces that are constantly trying to
interfere with them.
There is a famous writer in America named Truman Capote. He wrote 'In Cold Blood' which made a
couple of million dollars for him. He was a very bizarre homosexual with very funny habits. He made all
this money and could not write anymore. He kept on telling people that he was working on a novel and he
did that for 22 years until he died. When he died and they went through all of his papers, that book did not
exist, but he had an incredible endurance.
There is a famous story about him. He wrote the screen play for the film African Queen' with Humphrey
Bogart and in those days, when they made the film, he literally had to change the script every single day
so that they all had to work together, the writers and the actors. Bogart was somebody who was very
crude. Capote had a funny little voice, a kind of squeaky, high pitched voice. He really sounded hilarious
when you heard him speak. Bogart was making fun of his voice and one evening Bogart challenged him
to an arm wrestle and Capote beat him. This was something that really humiliated poor Bogart. Capote
was quite a funny character.
The truth is that what the outside wants from creative people is that they do not bring any mutation
because it is frightening, but they are allowed to be fools and clowns. They are allowed to be the symbols
of creativity and they are allowed to have creative characters as long as they do not bring mutation.
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Society does not like mutation. It makes them very uncomfortable. Sometimes the real creative ones are
shunned.
The whole thing about creative expression as a role, the mystery and secret of that, goes back to the very
first line. The very first line talks about Time is everything. Everything about the creative process is about
time because mutation is not something that you can truly appreciate in its time. When mutation takes
place, the fact that mutation takes place in any given moment is a mystery to the vast majority of the
planet. It takes place in a unique individual and it will have its time. We live in a different kind of age, in
an age where we are able to transmit information images simultaneously, instantaneously, wherever
mutation is taking place in the world. But time is the quality that distinguishes whether a mutation is
valuable or not. I doubt very much if anybody 300 years from now will pay any attention to Andy
Warhol. I doubt that.
The perspective of whether a mutation really has been of value, whether a mutation has really been
effective or not, we are blind to that in our own time. It is one of the things to realize why the artistic
spirit longs for immortality. Immortality is something that you only hear from the creative spirit because
it recognizes that only time, a lot of time, is going to distinguish whether something is truly art, truly
great, and truly mutative. Only then, and it will take time before the perspective can be there that looks
back and says, "Ahal That was something that really made a difference. That was something that brought
a mutation.," So it is a question of time.
The creative force in the first line recognizes that timing controls the creative process at work. In other
words, one cannot push it. One has to wait. It has its own timing and the fact of the matter is that even
when the mutation has taken place, there is no place for expectation. This is not abstract. This is not
collective. This is not about being best. This is simply about the recognition that mutation has taken place
and one lives with that mutation until the end of one's days. Time: generation after generation, in their
looking back, to see clearly the value of whether something was art, was beautiful, was the right direction,
was a mutation, only then can that be clear.
1.6 Objectivity
This leads us to the dilemma of the 1.6 because the 1.6 knows that. It sits up there on top of the house of
creativity and it looks across to the 43.1 which says, "Hey, patience." All resistance has to be eliminated.
This has to get out into the world. The mutation has to take its place. It takes a long, long time. You will
never live long enough to appreciate the impact of that mutation. I know that. I live that. What I share
with you, what we work with in Human Design. There is no possible way that I can see what that is going
to be because the perspective on that will take place long after I'm gone. 300 years from now or 400 years
from now, somebody may be able to look back on that perspective and see the mutative value and beauty
in all this. It can't be judged now. It can only be lived as a mutation now, nothing else.
The 1.6 is a question of Objectivity. Clear assessment of creative value. But how do you know? What we
consider to be high art today, what will it be tomorrow? We don't know that. There are millions and
millions of pieces of creativity that are garbage, long forgotten. Not everything can be mutative. So this
question of what is of creative value becomes an enormous dilemma for the 1.6. It looks out and says,
"Yes, okay. I look at it now. It seems to be okay, but how will this stand the test of time?" Go out in the
street and look at one of these new buildings. It may be attractive today in our consciousness, maybe.
What will it look like from the next phase looking back? Will it still have a place? Will we be pleased to
see those buildings survive? I doubt it. Clear assessment of creative value. That is the point.
The Earth exalted with no explanation; it does not say anything about this. This clear assessment is a
lifelong process and, at the end of your life, it can only be comparative and you still do not know. We are
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talking about mutation. Human beings are so damn selfish. They want everything in their time. We are a
species and our species operates beyond generational borderlines. It is a movement. Mutation is a
movement and it goes far beyond a single lifetime. Any mutation that is of value travels hundreds of
generations. This is something that can only be judged in time by looking back.
Pluto in detriment. The risk that subjective appraisal will result in disappointment and creative frustration.
Well, you are not going to get a lot of creative expression out of a 1.6 because they recognize clearly what
really will be mutative. What happens in the detriment is that there is this subjectivity that comes in and it
only comes early in life that pulls them saying, "Yes, this is it." That is the person who says, "This is the
most beautiful thing." This subjective appraisal leads to disappointment because time just passes it by and
five years later nobody is interested in it because it is just a fad. It was not really of creative value and it
did not really bring a mutation. Then the 1.6 stands back and says, "Okay."
In the white book, the Earth is given its value. Clarity in creative expression. Remember the relationship
between the sixth line and wisdom. Though the 1.6 is not involved on a moment by moment basis with
trying to assert its creative uniqueness, it has a much greater process going on. That process can flower in
the end. That is the perspective that really sees clearly whether the mutation is something that will have
that generational transcendent power to it. Nobody can recognize that better than a 1.6, sitting on the roof
of the house, looking at the creative impulse of the world. It has the capability of objectively saying,
"That mutation will take hold. That will go. I bet that 400 years from now, everyone is doing that."
That is the possibility that lies there as wisdom. It is about time. The nature of bringing love into the
world is not about loving your neighbor; it is about loving yourself. (This is something that I get to when I
talk about the vessel of love.) The important thing about bringing real true creative mutation into the
world is simply about these individual forces being themselves, nothing more and nothing less. What
happens is that we have this enormous need of the ego to assert itself because we need to survive on the
material plane. The material plane is: feed me now, fill my stomach now. Mutation is not about that. It is
not. It takes its time.
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HEXAGRAM 2 THE RECEPTIVE
lMe come to the Sphinx, to the nature of the G center, to the concept of self. Keep in mind about the
nature of the G center that this is where the magnetic monopole is. The monopole has two basic functions,
one of which is to hold us together in the illusion of our separateness: what we call love. The other aspect
of the G center is the aspect that hooks us up to our geometry. It moves us along in our trajectory in space.
This is the Sphinx and this is the nature of direction in life.
One of the things to keep in mind about the Sphinx is that it has this configuration with all gates in the G
center, of the second gate below and the three other gates pointed up to the throat. All of those three gates
are role gates. Only one gate in the Sphinx gives direction: the second gate. It is the only one. The nature
of direction for humanity is an evolutionary direction which is rooted in mutation. No matter how logic
establishes the validity of a pattern, that pattern can always be destroyed by mutation because mutation is
the way of life. The fact is that the second gate is the gate that transforms mutation into direction.
The driver is in the second gate, but the perspectives vary. The other three gates represent perspectives of
the driver. So, you have the driver who, while he is driving along, is staring intensely out of the front
window and is literally looking into the future. This is the logic driver in the 7th gate and that is his
perspective out of the 7th gate. Then you have the driver who, while the car is driving along, is always
looking in the rear view mirror. He always has to see what is behind him and where he is coming from.
This is abstract perspective. This is the 13th gate looking backwards out of the rear view mirror. Then
there is the perspective in which, while the car is driving along the road, the driver is looking at his own
hands on the dashboard. This is the driver, relatively speaking, in the now and it is the perspective that
comes out of the 1st gate.
Remember, it is the same car driving on same road in the same direction. This is so important to
understand: the direction is not altered by the perspective. The perspective is simply on the movement.
So, if you talk about direction, when you look for direction in somebody's chart, do not confuse direction
with the role gates of the Sphinx. These are perspectives. The direction is always coming out of the
second gate, the driver.
Above the lines there is a very important comment here. In The Receptive, we are dealing with the most
yin of all hexagrams. Receptivity as the primal base through which any response is determined. The root
of action. Everything about what we are going to do as a totality and where we are going to move to in
this life as a totality is rooted in this gate, The Receptive. This is a primal base. Out of this all direction
comes. Out of this all evolutionary action comes.
Keep in mind the fact that the driver always needs access to other things. Vie are not talking about how
this comes out in somebody's design. Vv are talking about the nature of this gate. The driver can end up
being starved for fuel, not having the 14. The nature of this gate is that this is where direction, origin, is.
This is the core of that. It is truly the driver.
2.1 Intuition
The first line always gives you the basis. It is called Intuition here. It says, as an overview: Sensitivity to
disharmony and atrophy. This is very important.
Venus exalted. The importance of aesthetics, whether inborn or acquired. What is direction? One of the
things that pleased me the most about Human Design was that it was pretty. It has to do with aesthetics. It
sounds poetic, but it is true that our direction is about trying to find the most beautiful way. It really is our
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direction. We are trying to find a way to avoid ugliness and disharmony, so the importance of aesthetics,
whether inborn or acquired.
Mars in detriment. The assertion of ego in spite of wisdom. Look, this is a first line. It tries to figure out
what the direction is. What is the direction and how does that direction work?
In the white book: Higher knowing through aesthetics. The thing to recognize about our direction is that
what we are trying to find, what everybody is looking for, what people call paradise, happiness, bliss, is a
direction that brings us pleasure and that brings us beauty and harmony in this life. It is not such a bad
thing to know that humanity, at its foundation, in terms of the direction it is moving towards, is looking
for beauty and harmony. It does not mean that it is going to get it. However, it is a very nice place to go.
The other thing is that ego, willpower, is not what direction is all about. It is not the ego that dictates
whether you go this way or that way. Direction is not something we control. Direction is a mutative force.
The detriment here is: The urge for action that will ignore the wisdom of the Higher Self. The wisdom of
the higher self says: the direction is already there. Do not impose will on this. People who have the first
line in detriment will try many times in their life to alter direction by willpower only to discover that it is
disastrous for them. Our direction is towards beauty and harmony. This is the Sphinx after all, and part of
the great mystery of what the Sphinx is. Not bad; let's keep working at it. (It is my North Node.)
You will notice that in three of the six lines, the word 'ego' is mentioned. In the other three lines, where
ego is not mentioned, it is implied. The great dilemma of the self is that ego is a motor and it always
claims direction in this gate. The ego wants to be able to say, "I am in charge of the direction", rather than
seeing that the driver simply drives and the passenger sits in the back seat. Whenever you see the ego
applied here, understand that this is the basic conflict that always exists between G center gates and heart
gates. The ego wants to make claims on the self.
2.2 Genius
The second line is Genius. It is a very special line when you think about what second lines are: the light in
the room where people look in from the outside. Everybody looks at the 2.2 and says, "They know where
they are going." The person that has that second line, they do not know that they know where they are
going. They may be deeply confused about where they are going. They may have no idea that they are in
the right direction, but everybody is looking inside and saying, "They know where they are going."
Unconscious and unlearnable alignment of stimulus and response. The natural. That is somebody who is
naturally going along in the right direction, not because they have the talent or the skills, but simply
because that is what they are meant to do. The gift of all second lines is that they do not know how to
interfere with themselves. That is a blessing because it just comes out. What happens, though, is that other
people jump in and it is their interference that creates dilemmas. Others jump in and say, "Do you realize
that you are going in the right direction? That is terrificl" Those others are pumping up their ego, trying to
get that second line to think, "Yes, it is me."
The natural. Saturn exalted. The inner strength to focus and realize. Just to be in your direction, without
even knowing that this is a direction, means just to be in your life.
When you come to the Mars in detriment, you have: Genius as madness. Knowledge exclusively as power
for the enhancement of the ego. This is the moment where somebody steps in and looks inside, sees the 2
and their direction and says, "Wow, you have really done it," and they say "Yes, and I'll tell you how I did
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it." Then they really get into trouble. These are people that are always claiming that they have achieved
power out of knowledge.
In the white book: A natural gift for unlearnable knowing; or The delusion that knowledge is power. This
is the delusion that your direction is the result of your genius, your hard work, or of you being marvelous.
Paper tigers. They will get a terrible surprise.
The driver in the lower trigram does not even know that there is a gas pedal at the other end and therefore,
you can't expect that the capacity to drive is something that necessarily happens. They are always
surprised that there is a gas pedal because they do not expect it to be there. They are basically just reading
maps. The first line is looking at all the various maps that are around, and the second line has a map that
is just wired into its brain. It is just there, but it does not mean that they go anywhere unless they get
access to energy. Nor does it mean that they know how to handle the energy when it is there. It is one
thing to be a good driver but if you don't know how to use the gas pedal, you can end up smashing into a
tree simply because you are out of control or because you cannot handle the fuel. This is still lower
trigram.
2.3 Patience
As you see when we discuss the gates of the G center, their lines are often very special in comparison to
other lines of the same kind. This is particularly true for the 2.3. We know third lines represent an
adaptation process. These are lines of trial and error. This is a highly exalted third line. Mutation is a
matter of trial and error. This is something that we know. Mutative processes are going on all the time and
they are trial and error until the right and most successful mutation takes place, takes hold and gains its
strength. The other mutations just disappear because they were not productive. What that means is that the
mutative process at its very best is exemplified through the third and the sixth lines. The third line
provides, in the mutative process, just the right mix: trial and error to find the right mutation.
So here we have Patience. The teacher that never stops being a student. This is the trial and error.
Everyone who carries the second gate is a teacher in life in the sense that they are always providing
direction, whether they want to or not. That is what 'teacher' means in this sense, but they can never stop
being a student in life. In other words, they think that they are in the right direction and something
happens and they try something else, until they finally get it.
Jupiter exalted. Dedication to a lifetime of receptivity with the maturity to accept that the process never
ends. Mutation is not going to stop. It is an ongoing process. We must never lose our vigilance and we
must realize that all kinds of mutative possibilities are in the world at the same time looking for
supremacy. In the same way that our genetic material is constantly in competition for which genes will
dominate in the global gene pool, this is an ongoing process that we are involved in.
When you get to the Uranus in detriment though, you get: For the revolutionary, patience is a vice. This is
the pull of the ego again that says, "Oh, not another change. This direction is the right one, and I will stay
with it. I can't afford to go to another one." Or it is the opposite of that, which is jumping from one thing
to the next rapidly, constantly breaking the bonds. This is very destabilizing. It is important to see that
those people that have the 2.3 have to be aware that for them to have many directions in life is not only
natural but healthy. It is healthy for them to break the bonds of direction and try another one until you
finally see what really works in that sense.
In the white book: The recognition that receptivity is a lifelong process. For these people, it is an ongoing
process of seeking out the mutative way. By the way, though it is a process that never ends, it does not
mean to change direction until the end. They can mature into this process and simply become those that
provide others with a guide to the best and the most mutative directions in life.
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On the other side: Higher knowing that cannot wait and demands expression. The reason that this third
line learns so much is that it does not know that there is a gas pedal and gets to meet it regularly. Because
it is adaptive, every time that it gets a new fuel, it experiments with a new direction. People often
misunderstand what that means: you may be the driver but the fact of the matter is that the driver alone
does not control the direction. He can't. The driver cannot control the direction without the gas pedal and
the fuel. An example: I am a carnivore. If I want food, I will look for a place that has meat. JOrgen is a
vegetarian. If he wants to find food, he will go for a place that is vegetarian. We may both go in the same
direction (we need to feed ourselves) but we will actually take a different course because the fuels are
different.
So what happens to the third line is that it experiments with all the different fuels that it meets until it
finds the fuel that works. What you have learned in terms of hexagram structure, resonance and
harmonies, you can see right away what will happen to the third line: when it meets a 14.3 or a 14.6, it
will find the kind of fuel that it can really work with. But it will still have to go through the dissonances,
the difficulties of matching up with fuels that do not necessarily work. It is a learning process. But this is
a very mutative line.
2.4 Secretiveness
When you get to the upper trigram, things change, obviously. You come to a transpersonal line that
knows that there is something on the other side. All fourth lines are rooted in opportunism. Opportunism
exists in all fourth lines and waits for the opportunity. Fourth lines are one -tracked and unidirectional.
They are there to externalize.
Here we have Secretiveness. More than modesty, the ability to preserve harmony through discretion. It is
so important for a 2.4 to externalize the very foundation. In doing that, it has to be very careful about not
letting other people interfere with the direction. This is an individual gate. Individuals, particularly in
highly mutative gates, are not around to be influenced by anyone else. The whole business of direction
carries with it a lot of weight. If a 2.4 is driving a car and you are driving with them and you both know
where you think you are going, that 2.4 is not going to tell you until they make that funny left turn that
they are going on their own direction. They have another way to get there. If they tell you beforehand,
you are going to interfere, which will result in a problem.
Venus exalted. The higher goal transcends personal acclaim. The team player, acknowledged as the leader
but never the captain. Nobody wants a mutative person as their captain because they are unreliable, but
they can be great leaders. In other words, the turning of the wheel in that direction may annoy the captain,
but it may turn out to be good advice and good leadership and the captain will go along with it. The whole
thing for 2.4's is to recognize the importance of secrecy in their life. Don't let other people in on the
direction. Just do your thing. After all, individuals are here to be examples. They are not here to lead.
They are not here to be witnesses. They are just here to be examples. This mutative direction is all about
living it out as an example.
When you come to the Mars in detriment: Loose lips sink ships. The unquenchable fire of the ego
engenders enmity. This is the ego saying, "I know that you are over there but I will make a left turn now,
okay? I want to take a different way." Everybody else gets upset and the 2.4 says, "I want to go this way
and I know this way."
In the white book: Where higher knowing does not have to be expressed to be recognized; and the other
side: The inability to keep silent when the opportunity arises for expression. This is what happens to the
self the moment that the ego comes in: it creates all kinds of difficulties. It takes away the value of the
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possibility of spiritual recognition. Direction is something that is given to us and not something that we
can claim.
When I was a teenager in Canada, we had all kinds of movies that showed groups of three or four boys
and one of them would be the acknowledged leader but this one would not have a driver's license. So,
somebody would have to drive the car and the one who would do this would be the 2.4. If they kept it
secret, they could enjoy being in charge of everybody by driving that car, even though the leader was
sitting in the car. That is the exalted side, but the moment they say, "Hey, we are going my way because it
is my car," is the moment they get into trouble. That is the detriment.
2.5 Intelligent application
Fifth lines are the way society wants to see direction. The people with the 2.5 get projected on that they
are the ones that know the direction, that they are the ones that have the way. The line is called: Intelligent
application. The strategist. It is about developing a strategy of how to deal with that projection. If people
project on you that you know the way, well, what do you do with that? Do you really know the way?
There are two sides to this. One side is the Mercury exalted. The strategist. Reasoned management of
resources. After all, the 2.5 is at its very best; gas pedals are always recognizing them. Gas pedals always
come up to them and say, "You are the one that has the direction. Do you want my fuel?" The whole thing
for a 2.5 is to learn how to manage those resources because they do not have the resources themselves.
That is inherent in the gate, but how it operates is dependent on the design. They are always looking for
the resources from others that come to them and they manage those resources to be able to maintain their
direction.
The other side, the Earth in detriment. The inability to share responsibility or recognize the abilities of
others. Again, you can feel the flavor of the ego coming into this. The ego has always tainted the self in
this way. This whole business about the inability to share responsibility: this is an individual gate, after
all, which will take fuel but that does not mean that it is also taking somebody else's telling it where to go.
It will not. The 2.5, even though it gets projected on that it is the one that knows the way, the moment that
it refuses to take you, it gets projected on that it does not know the way or that the way it does know is the
wrong way. This is the other side of the coin.
In the white book: Higher knowing as an exclusively individual and selfish process. What happens to
these detriment people is that everybody is projecting on them that they have the direction and they push
everybody away because they do not want to be interfered with and they keep their direction for
themselves. "You are going up into the mountains? Can I join you?" "No, I don't want you to tell me
which way to go up the mountain. Do not dare to tell me. I am smart enough to go up into the mountains
with somebody who is giving me the energy, but is not going to bug me. If I don't have it myself, I'll wait
for a transit to get the fuel."
The 2.5 is always projected on that they have the direction and that they should be the driver. If you have
a party and a couple of people are drunk, it is the 2.5 that everybody goes over to and says, "Could you
drive them home?" Others think that the 2.5's know where these people live. If you are lost on a street and
you end up asking somebody for direction, the person you think is the one that can tell you the way,
whether or not they really can tell you, is probably a 2.5. You have this sense of, "Ahal They know the
way." They may or may not. If they do, you think they are wonderful and their reputation grows. If not,
they run into problems.
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If you project on them that they know the way and they get involved with the ego in that, they also run
into problems. Individuality is not here to be best. Individuals go to hell the moment they try to be best at
anything.
There is only individual connection of the ego that goes directly into the self, in order to be worked out in
that case. It is one of the things about projection and the confusion between the self and the ego always to
keep in mind. These people that get projected on, it is not because they know the direction. They are the
direction. If you have the second gate, you are the direction.
2.6 Fixation
Sixth lines are always different than their hexagram because they are outside of the process. Here you
have a line called Fixation with an overview that says: Unable or unwilling to see the whole picture. The
first thing to recognize about this is that all sixth lines are desperate to see the whole picture. That is what
a sixth line is all about. It sits on the roof and tries to get the best perspective that it possibly can to take
everything in, and here is this sixth line and we have: unable, unwilling, to see the whole picture. Think
about what mutation is all about. We absolutely must have mutation. It is essential for our evolutionary
process. Society, humanity, the totality is dependent on direction, on this mutative force and then you
have these sixth lines that do not want to mutate. Their not wanting to mutate is not of benefit to the
totality; however, this is not about moral distinction. It is negative in this sense. That is why the negative
is there. It is negative because it is denying mutative possibilities.
Think about the 24.6 which is about the possibility of being deaf when opportunity knocks. This is very
true of the 2.6. In other words, it is unable to see the whole picture, so it is not ready to mutate and, as
such, may miss the opportunity for mutation and direction in its life. These people don't seem to be going
anywhere, at least, not to themselves.
Mercury exalted. Less negative, though the intellect becomes absorbed in constant rationalization. I put
you back to the 24.6 because it is the language of it. It takes you into what that process is all about: the
possibility, literally, of not taking the opportunity to mutate because, if you are the 2.6 sitting there on top
of the roof, you don't really see all the different roads that could be driven because you are limited in that
way.
In the Saturn in detriment: The need for security may distort awareness to its ultimate perversion,
destructiveness. This line is rarely understood. It resonates deeply with the 28.6, which is also part of the
individual process: Blaze of glory, also a sixth line.
Remember, our theme throughout this hexagram is the conflict between the exalted self and the ego in
detriment. This is not about good or bad. That is simply the conflict that is inherent there. What happens
in this part is that, unable to see or unwilling to see the whole picture, they get fixed, and what they get
fixed on is mundane direction. They get fixed on dealing with what is on the other side (the 14), which is
all about security and making money and bringing rewards into your life because the 14 is all about
resources. It is about filling up your wagon. So, what happens to the 2.6 is that they get fixed on the
mundane and in doing so, everything becomes their ego and, in that, becomes destructive of them. They
don't mutate and, because of that, they go through all kinds of problems and they suffer because it is not
up to their ego in that sense.
In the white book: Higher knowing that is extremely narrow in its receptivity. Even at the exalted level,
chances are that you are not going to get mutation out of these forces but, as withh all sixth lines, it is
possible. Like all sixth lines, there is the possibility to come down from the roof the moment there really
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is something that is of value, and the moment that one can see from that sixth line perspective that
fulfillment can take place, whatever the circuitry dictates.
Individual circuitry, the knowing, centering and integration circuits, is enormously complex. In order for
that 2.6 to decide on a direction, it has to deal with that whole circuitry. It is vast and so, it is deeply
limited in that sense. However, the mutations that do come out of the 2.6 are very powerful because they
are very selective mutations. They can be good for us and bad.
The joke is that before the 2.1, is the 24.6. In other words, the individuality in the 24.6 leads to the 2.1,
and when you get to the 2.6, this leads to the 23.1, Prose !ytization, which is about the ability to explain
yourself. That is why you have the limitation here. The limitation is this sense of, "Wow, it is not just a
direction. It is that I have to be able to explain the direction," and this is very difficult because this is
always the dilemma for the individual process, to be able to explain knowing. The 2.6 is looking out and
saying, "Oh, boy. I have to explain this because otherwise, I will not get other people onto this direction
and if I can't get them onto this direction, it is not mutative and it will not work. "
That is why the 2.6 is rationalizing. That is why intellect is mentioned in this line. The mind is constantly
trying to figure out: what is a direction that I can actually explain? Because that really is the key.
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HEXAGRAM 3 - DIFFICULTY AT THE BEGINNING
The 3rd gate is an extraordinary gate. It is called Difficulty at the Beginning. In the black book, it says:
The fundamental challenge of initiation is to transcend confusion and establish order. If you want a good
meditation, think about that for half of your life. This is life itself: to transcend confusion and to establish
order. We are so busy establishing order on this planet. This is what we have been doing from the
beginning and we are getting faster and faster at hooking up this order throughout the entire global
village. The third hexagram speaks for this intrinsic process of life itself. Life itself is to transcend
confusion. What this is saying to all of us is that there is nothing wrong with life being confusing. Life is
confusion.
The longer I live, the more I realize how long you have to live to come to grips with the confusion of life.
The confusion is not the enemy This is so important to understand. Confusion is natural before mutation
can take place. Out of confusion comes this mutation. Out of this transcendence comes a new order which
is not simply a new regulation or a new controlling. It is a new order in the sense that the 3rd gate
represents the potential for genetic mutation in life. These are children that come into the world with new
genetic combinations.
As we globalize our planet, we also globalize our mating process. We have been mixing genes from all
over the planet. All kinds of interrelationships in the 20th century have brought out a whole new mix in
the genetic pool. This also represents a new order in genetic material because it is our ongoing
responsibility as a species to survive through genetic diversity. The third gate speaks for this process of
life. The essence of life is confusing but the purpose of all that is to transcend the confusion and establish
the order.
People who come to Human Design always come in a state of confusion. They come in the obvious state
of confusion which means they are not being able to make sense out of, understand or know what it is to
be themselves and why they live the life that they do. All confusion that we experience as humanity can
be transcended and order can be found, but that is a process that we have to go through. I remind students
of the Oracle of Delphi. Written over the oracle was this wonderful inscription: 'Know Thyself. This is
the primary function. Life itself is not confusing but being alive in the world as a human is confusing.
3.1 Synthesis
The third hexagram is about the generation of life itself. It is about what literally brings us into the world.
As such, the first line lays a foundation for what it is to be in the world. If you have the 3.1 and you are
really introspective, the first thing that you know is that you are confused. What do you do about it?
Nothing, because you know that, somewhere down the line, life will explain itself to you. If you have the
first line and you don't know that you are confused, then you are really confused. You think you really
know what is going on and everything breaks down in your face.
This is the nature of this first line. It speaks for our whole life process. Recognize that we all come into
this life confused and we go through most of it confused. In most of those situations, if we are psychically
healthy, the confusions in our life will be resolved naturally, as a way. That is what we are here for. We
are great ordering creatures. We do manage to make sense out of things in the end, even if it is a lie. But
the moment that you do not accept that confusion is natural, that the way is not your way to control, that
is the moment that deep confusion comes in and the sense of, "Where is the way?"
3.2 Immaturity
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When you get to the second line, you get to Immaturity. The first line spends all its time involved in the
introspection of saying, "I have confused energy," and the second line projects that out to everybody else.
Everybody looks at the 3.2 and they say, "Aren't they confused? They do not know where they are going."
That brings all kinds of people who say, "You shouldn't do that. You should do that." The 3.2 does not
know its depth. The second line does not look inwards and it does not know that it is truly confused. It
just puts out the confused, immature impression and then people come and say, "You poor thing. Let me
show you the way."
The 3rd gate is very confusing. The moment that you are confused and someone else shows you the way,
you get even more confused because you are being shown the way by someone who is just as confused as
you are. The unrsstrained acceptance of guidance.
They do not know where they are going. They do not have the depth to understand that it is okay that you
do not know where you are going. It is not up to you where you go. Our whole process is not about what
we do. It is about what happens to us the moment we let go off trying to control our confusion. The
moment we try to hammer our confusion into some kind of order is the moment that we get deeply
confused. Life has a way. Human beings do not recognize how wonderful they are, how clever and
adaptable they are. How much they learn in a lifetime. How what they learn is exactly for their confusion
so that they can finally have order in their life.
The second line has Mars exalted. The moment you see Mars heading a line, you know that this is a line
that always reflects a built-in immaturity. Mars is a twelve or fourteen year old child. They can be
delicious some days and they can be absolute monsters the next day. The unrelenting energy for growth
will eventually triumph. Again, one side of this process is saying: check out all the guides. Listen to all
the teachers and gurus. Eventually, you will find your order anyway and you will resent all these people
and what they tried to tell you.
On the other side, the Uranus in detriment: Internal instability which both accepts and rejects authority
simultaneously. We all live with these dichotomies in lines. Even if you have a planet fixing one side, you
will meet the energy on the other side.
In the white book: The energy and potential for individual mutation. That is, mutation after the 3.2 has
gone through this deeply confusing process of being guided by others and finally finding its own order.
The whole thing about the lower trigram is that it does not really want to deal with the other. The second
line is just a projection that it is putting out. It does not really want to deal with what it will end up
dealing with and then it gets very confused.
Energy and potential that is conditioned by others, leading to instability. "Do this! You are doing the
wrong thing. Put your energy in this and not in that." All second lines end up in this dilemma of calling
others to them to tell them. They are putting out a projection and that projection is being met by what they
are not prepared to meet. The moment that the second line puts out the projection, "I am confused," it
really does not know what it is confused about. It does not know that it is projecting out confusion. It is
getting people coming up to them and telling them, "You are confused," and they are astonished. "You
are going in the wrong direction. Don't you see?" "No." They immediately pull people who take them and
try to control the direction of their mutation.
3.3 Survival
The most volatile and mutative of all lines is the 3.3. Those mutations can be devastatingly bad and they
can be wonderful. It is called Survival. You will notice that in the third line, Pluto is in detriment. Pluto
has not been in the 3rd gate for over 150 years, although it will eventually, some time about 2020, reach
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the 60th hexagram on the other side. Very important to keep that in mind when you take a look at this line
because we are living in a time in which only the positive attributes of evolutionary mutation are at work
for us. We will get to a point where there will be a negative field of mutation that will affect the whole
planet, particularly, the children that will be born under the configuration when Pluto enters the 60.
An innate knowing of what is sterile and fertile, where the mutation is specifically biological and
dependant on collaboration with others. In other words, how to come from a state of confusion (after all,
every line of this gate is about being confused) to the recognition of what is fertile and what is sterile. The
way we do that is the way the third line works: trial and error. Some things will be positively or
negatively mutative and some things won't be. Trial and error is built into survival.
Venus exalted. In reproduction, the ability to choose the best mate. By the way, that does not mean the
best lover or the best friend or partner or person to be in your life. It just means the one who is going to
help you to produce the mutation in the child that you are having. Don't get carried away with that line. It
is not about choosing the best mate as your partner for life. It is about being best productively, in that
sense.
Pluto in detriment. The perverse denial of evolutionary standards. We do not have that. That is a recessive
gene: all kinds of things that have a negative, mutative impact on us. Again, what you are looking at is
this fulfillment. This is the end of the lower trigram after all. It does have its depth and projection, but it
also has the capacity to adapt and remember. All third lines have this sense that, even though they are
stuck within their own gate, there is something out there at the other end of the channel. They do not
really know whatit is; they are not the fourth line. But they do know something about that because they
are forced to adapt through trial and error.
The third line is where the trial and error comes in. One thing to understand about going through this
survival process is that, in order to survive confusion, you have to be willing to make those mistakes. You
have to be ready to try different things because trial and error is built into it.
An innate contrariness which refuses to mutate. When Pluto comes to the 60th hexagram, we will have a
whole generation of people who come and provide us with no new mutative material. This is a generation
that will be a blind end when it comes to reproduction. It will have difficulties in reproduction.
The nature of the third line is that confusion is something that we can transcend through trial and error.
All third lines have within them this ability to make mistakes and survive. That is the person that has four
children with four different lovers and one of them is really great. It finally got it right. It got the genetic
material it needed. "Now I have the order that I really needed in my life. The other three, well...?" By the
way, politicians are born to the 3's. It is perfect for them.
3.4 Charisma
When you come to the fourth line, you come to another process. We move into the upper trigram. In the
fourth line we are talking about something that is deeply aware of the fact that there is something else at
the other end of the channel and that it no longer is involved in its own process but has an integrated
process with other forces. This fourth line is called Charisma. Think about the channel of Charisma, the
channel 20/34 in the integration network. If you see that in a chart where it is not connected to an
awareness, you know that these are people that deeply need guidance in their life. The most charismatic
people have, standing behind the curtain, someone who takes most of the money, most of the power, and
does not do the front job which is done by the 20/34. Their charisma goes out in the world and the people
in the back count all the money.
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By its very nature, Charisma is about being guided. Everything about the 3rd hexagram is about living out
the natural confusion of life. No matter what line you are dealing with, on one side is a way of living out
that confusion to find what works and the other side is all about being even more confused by thinking
that you can find a way out of the confusion, instead of just letting that natural process happen.
Innate quality which attracts valued guidance. These people are focused on being confused. That is their
charisma. After all, they have a one -track-mind. If you look at the 18.4, The Incompetent, you see that
they are not capable themselves of solving the confusion because they are not designed to. They are
designed to have someone else do it for them, legitimately. After all, they are looking to the other side of
the channel. It is a totally different process. They are looking across for someone to give them guidance.
They are looking to the 60th hexagram to root them in the stable order of what is past, in order to see the
movement of what is new. They are looking for the other side.
By doing so, they attract Neptune exalted. Psychic attunement that magnetizes nurturing. When you see
Neptune in a line, you know that you know nothing about any of it. Neptune is veiling everything.
Someone says, "You just pulled me in," and they say, "Did I really do that?" They have no idea of that
psychic magnetizing of others. That is pouring out of the Neptunian veil and they do not know. But
underneath that fourth line, it is going back to its resonance in the first line. The first line knows: "Let's
wait long enough. Life will solve our confusion." Here, the 4 says, "Not only do I know that, but that is
what I will project out with all my might: I am confusedl" Immediately there is someone who shows them
the way.
On the other side: Mars in detriment, where the demands of ego lead to rejection. To this kind of people
you say, "I know exactly what your problem is. All you have to do is...," and they look at you and say, "I
am confused." The other person repeats the advice and they still say, "I am confused." They are totally
wrapped up in their confusion. They may come to you for guidance because they externalize that
confusion and you are there saying, "Oh, I can help you," and then you get mad at them because they do
not listen to what you tell them. No matter what problem these people have, if you come with a solution,
they still say that they are confused. This is their energy. This is the fixed way that it moves out.
Please understand the nature of guidance. What it is saying about life itself is that, not only is life a
confusing ordeal for us because we need to transcend the confusion to find order, but it is exceedingly
difficult to do it alone. One of the terminologies that exist in the world that I am most uncomfortable with
is this assumption and vanity that human beings have: the idea of having an individual karma, "v do not.
There will not be any mutation unless there is a whole chain of mutative forces that are at work.
At the highest level, once we go through the lower trigram process of saying, "I am confused," we finally
get to the upper trigram process that says, "I am confused but, not only will there eventually be order, but
I will find that order through others." In this sense, they are being guided. The worst scenario for these
people is someone who has this line and a defined ego. "I am confused, but so what? I will continue to be
confused my way. You are not straightening me.
3.5 Victimization
The fifth line has this delicious name Victimization. Remember the nature of its resonance to the second
line that projects out, "I am confused." When you get to the fifth line, you have other people who project
on the fifth line and say, "That one is confused." The fifth line may or may not be confused. They may
have already transcended the confusion and be totally in order. The other side is looking at them and says,
"Ahal They are confused. I am going to guide them and take advantage of them." The moment that the
outside force is guiding the fifth line, the victimization is always possible.
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Remember, the fifth line is not necessarily confused. It just receives that projection. It is like a child that
goes home to his parents as an adult and the parents are still seeing the child. They do not see the mature
adult. It is not possible for them. The fifth line is always getting that kind of projection. They are always
being seen as being confused, whether they are or not.
As an overview line it says: When actions designed to overcome confusion alienate others. "I am not
confused, let me show you." "Yes, you are." That is confused. There is no way that they can convince the
others that are projecting on them. "Mom, I am no longer a child, I am a big boy now.' VOh, no, you are
still my baby.' No way to escape that.
Mars exalted. The courage to stand by one's convictions. Very immature, to deny that projection to live
out the nature. "I am not victimized." Underneath that: The Earth in detriment, where victimization leads
to appeasement and suffering. These people do not necessarily need to be guided. After all, they are there
as a universalizing principle. It is one of the things that we see as a completing process in this hexagram,
that so many 3rd gate people are victimized, that confusion gets victimized and projected on from the
outside because people think that confusion is bad. Our logical process, which is very different from this
individual process, says that order is something that we can establish: "Here are the guidelines logically;
being confused is not necessary. Come over here and I will show you how not to be confused." The
collective gives confusion a dirty name because it loves to be moralistic. "Confusion is bad and order is
good. Four legs good, two legs bad." What happens to us planetary- wise is that there is this enormous
pressure placed on confusion that it must be resolved.
I have so many people that come to me with undefined G centers who have been literally ripped apart by
people who said, "You must know who you are." They became the victims in that kind of imposition of
someone else's guidance through lack of awareness, through lack of recognition of their own nature. Keep
in mind that the fifth lines represent the universalization of a hexagram. The universalization of confusion
in our world is victimization. If you are confused, someone is going to pick on you. If you are confused,
someone will try to use you. Confusion is not bad. It is life. It will go away, I promise.
The unique energy of individuality to withstand confusion; and Confused energy which is dominated by
the ordering power of others. The integrity of the individual speaks here: the integrity to follow your own
convictions despite the projections of others. The integrity of the individual is that it recognizes that
confusion is okay. It is about accepting this.
Every hexagram speaks for all of us. '% cannot avoid these things; they are in the world. The moment that
you are victimized when you are confused is the moment that you are at risk. That is the moment that you
have given up on the recognition that life itself is the great organizer of things. That is why, for me, this
hexagram begins the wheel because it begins this process of recognition. There is no way that we will
figure things out right away. They all take time and the whole life process is a constant movement
through states of confusion until we reach a point of clarity.
Whenever you look at the first and fifth lines you see the whole story. The first line tells you the deepest
truth of what a hexagram is. The fifth line tells you how the world sees it. The world sees confusion as an
opportunity for victimization. By the way, the positive attribute of that is what we call public education.
"Let's straighten all these people out. Let's show them the order. Teach them the ABC's. Teach them how
to be good, moral, orderly creatures and make sure they do not cross the street against the light." W a
ingrain that in everybody as a result of this being the universalizing symbol of what it is to be confused.
Confusion has a bad name.
3.6 Surrender
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With the sixth line, you get to the roof. There you have a different movie because it is not really part of
the hexagram anymore.' It has all of that process inherent in it. It knows all of those steps. All of those
things are there, even if it is not really in touch with them. They are built into the nature of the sixth line.
It has a beautiful name: Surrender. We start with synthesis and end with surrender. This is the nature of
what it is to live in a confusing body, in a confusing world. Surrender. It is not up to us to dictate the
nature of the solution. Ordering comes of itself.
Please remember that the sacral center is not aware. It is a very hot and sweet, dumb machine. It is just
doing its job. It is just putting out an energy force, an energy field. There is no awareness attached to that.
In this energy itself lies this wonder of surrender. There is a genetic switch in us that says, okay, let it be.
The ultimate maturity to recognize when struggle is futile. Don't fight. "Why should I do anything about
my confusion," says the sixth line. "It is okay with me. Do you have a problem? I don't mind being
confused. If you think that I am confused, it is okay with me."
The sixth line does not have to do anything. It is interested in the whole circuit and the whole
individuality circuit is enormously complex. Its final stage is to bring about a viable mutation for all of
humanity. That is not likely to happen every two or three seconds. There are so many people with this line
who say, "Why should I do anything about this confusion when I will have that confusion tomorrow. I am
still confused. This is not solving anything for me. Let me just be confused. I do not want to mutate. I am
not ready to mutate. I don't care about mutation unless I can really see that it is possible. Can it really
happen? Otherwise I will stand back here and do nothing and vibrate with my sixth line."
Sun exalted. As its light sustains, so life goes on. This voice says, "The sun is still shining. I will
eventually find my order.
I will not struggle in this life." I meet this all the time. I am very existential and I live with my awareness
in the now and I am quite pleased to see that life just happens.
We had a client a couple of weeks ago in Munich. It was a woman who, by her very genetic structure, was
inhibited from being able to conceptualize at any sophisticated level, somebody who is restricted to just
being a child. She was 62 years old and looked 19. She had the mind of a twelve year old. She was a nice
human being but just very immature. She realized, after living in the world this long, that there is
something else, but didn't quite know what that was. She wanted me to tell her how to fix it. I told her,
"look, all you have to do is to let your life happen." There is no way that she could have understood that.
We come into this plane of existence, into a plane of confusion, and it takes enormous courage to let it all
just happen. Over and over again in my work I show people, "Look, it is simple. This is what you are.
You cannot change it. It is neither good nor bad. Life will happen to you and you vibrate in that process in
response." It is simply a fact. It is just the way it works.
The sacral is not an awareness center. Fear lies in all awareness. Fear is awareness. There is no fear in the
sacral center. It is not afraid of surrender. It does not really know what that means. It just knows that it
does not have the energy to fight to get through a particular confusion when it is not the complete thing.
Those people won't believe in any order unless that order is an absolute and you can prove it over and
over again. Otherwise, it is not worth the trouble. Why should I go to that therapist when I know damn
well that they are not able to solve my problem anyway? The innate acceptance that ordering is a process,
not a problem.
Please notice Pluto in detriment. It has never been there in our lifetime. It will come about 2023. The
overwhelming power of confused energy can lead to depression. The sixth line is not like the rest of the
hexagram. It is looking far beyond that process and in the Plutonic darkness, it can feel enormously
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depressed about the nature of the world. Remember that it is not active yet. In our world, we are very
fortunate. In the time that we live and in the children that are born into this cycle with Neptune in 60, all
these children are coming in with this mutative potential to surrender. It is there in us. This gate is about
what life is. It is the essence of life. Life begins with confusion and when you get to the end of the
process, your ultimate maturity is simply to accept: there is nothing that you can do about anything. Let it
just happen. Very difficult for human beings.
One last thing: if you look at the 3.6, the next hexagram is the 27. It is in the sacral center. It is about
nourishment and caring and the first line of the 27 is about being selfish. With surrender comes the
recognition of what it is to really be surrendered to the confusion. The next step is to look after yourself,
care for yourself. That is the lesson after the sixth line.
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HEXAGRAM 4: YOUTHFUL FOLLY
We come to the logical collective. The experience of the abstract side is always going from the
present to the past, and the experience of the individual process is the dealing with the present.
When we come to the logic process, there is the need to project into the future. Everything
about the logic process is about finding a way in which we can be secure in the nature of the
direction that we take in our lives so that humanity can be preserved.
The 4 th hexagram is the need to be able to provide a solution that can be experimented with, to
guarantee the perfection of the human process. Logic is universal in all life forms and so the
logical mind is of enormous value to humanity It is the only part of the mind that directly asks
questions and gives answers. The 4 th hexagram is called Youthful Folly. The question is
coming from the 63, the gate of doubt, and what we have here is the channel of Logic, a design
of mental ease mixed with doubt.
The 4 th gate is the gate of formulization and the potential is the awareness to judge what is
suspicious in the pattern or not. It is concentration on the pattern to come up with the answer.
The question is: "Is it suspicious, or not?" The answer is about answering the question about the
pattern. Everything about the logical process is about patterns. The doubt is always initiated by
a pattern. The answer always has to do with whether that pattern is worthy of doubt.
Remember the nature of the 18 th gate in the correction process. The 4 th gate, like the 18 th gate,
has a gift. The 1 8 th gate has the ability to be able to recognize at any given moment what needs
to be corrected. The 4 th gate has the gift of always being able to come up with an answer. Both
of those are risky things because what can be corrected at any given moment and an answer
that can be provided at any given moment is not necessarily the truth, nor is it necessarily
something that will prove to be of value to humanity once it has been tested and experimented
with. One always has to be deeply suspicious of logical answers. Answers are the beginning of
a process. They are the generation of a formula. The 4th gate is the gate of formulization. An
answer is a formula. The formula is: it is suspicious, or not.
It says above the lines: The energy to beguile and succeed despite ignorance. Freedom
from retribution. I am reminded of Groucho Marx, whom I love very much. A waiter came up to
him and asked him, "How did you find your steak?" "Beside the tomatoes and underneath the
lettuce." The capacity to come up with an answer has nothing to do with the truth. It is a gift to
answer. I know; I have the fourth gate. It does not mean that it is the truth, and this is so
important to understand. It can only be the truth after it has been tested and experimented with.
It does not matter how clever the answer is. The fact of the matter is that, for the benefit of
humanity, everything that is logical has to be tested and experimented with. The answer is only
the beginning of a process.
4.1 Pleasure
The first line is always the foundation and it is introspection. The first line is called Pleasure.
Understand, that that the whole thing about answers is that they are pleasurable. There is a
pleasure in getting answers. That is why logic has to be seductive for us. It is necessary. It
brings us pleasure to have answers.
Ultimate pleasure cannot be achieved without perfect timing. To give an answer at the wrong
time can be disastrous. People have to be ready for that. Moon exalted. The instinct to know the
right moment and circumstances where pleasure is rewarded and not punished. You can give
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an answer at one time and have a very angry response. You give an answer at another time
and everybody is happy. The same is true for correction. One moment you offer to correct
somebody and they think that you are bitching and the next moment the very same thing can be
accepted as being valuable. It is a matter of knowing what the timing is.
Earth in detriment. Timing is not a product of discipline. Exaggerated self-discipline leads to the
abuse of pleasure. The most important thing about people who have the fourth gate is that they
don't decide the timing. They are ready for the right time.
The potential to recognize that there is a natural timing to the understanding process. It is not
about deciding the timing; it is about being ready for the right time. It is there, it comes. It is
collective. In order for an answer to be valid, it still has to become an opinion. It still has to get
its details. It still has to be experimented with. It has to go through that whole process.
The other side is: The potential to recognize but the urge to force the timing. People who have
this detriment always want to give you the answer at the wrong time. You are busy and they
have the answer and they won't let you do your thing. They have to give you the answer when
you do not appreciate it, and then it does not get shared properly. The first line knows very little
about the other side. The key in all of this is to recognize the nature of timing, to be ready in the
understanding and then you do not get punished.
4.2 Acceptance
Here, we get to the line of projection and we know with the projection that there is no
introspection in that process. The introspection is all about timing. When you go to the tantric
channel of this, you get to the 15/5. You get to being in the flow; you get to the Rhythm. You get
to the timing mechanism. Timing is at the core of giving answers. When you get to the second
line, the projection line, there is no introspection to recognize the nature of the timing.
The line of Acceptance. The recognition of limitation in oneself and others leads to tolerance
and the suspension of judgment. Moon exalted. The glorification of feelings. The mother which
always pardons the errant child. Mars in detriment. The assertion of the ego at the expense of
others' failures.
In the white book, the Moon exalted. The potential to recognize that not everyone can
understand. The first thing that happens to the person that is projecting out their answer and not
being aware of the timing is that they project out their answer and other people just don't get it.
They are not ready for it. It is not the right time. It is not the right moment. It is not the right
place. Because of that, they have the sense of "They don't understand me. Why don't they
understand me?" Then there is this sense of "Maybe they will. It is too bad that they do not
understand." There is this sense of "Poor them. I have to be patient with them," instead of
realizing that it is simply coming at the wrong time.
The other side is: The potential to take advantage of the lack of understanding in others. Here
we have the ability to see very clearly in the projection that the others do not understand. "If
they don't understand I will take advantage of the understanding." In other words, "If they don't
get it, I won't share it with them. I'll just do it myself." Usually, disaster and Terminal disease
follow.
4.3 Irresponsibility
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The third line is about adaptation. We get to the end of the trigram. The third line is rooted in the
wave of bonds made and broken. I have my design Saturn in this line and I know it very well. It
is called Irresponsibility. I claim it boldly: "I am not responsible." The general refusal to apply
oneself diligently when one can get by with much loss effort. This is a deep facility to be able to
come up with answers and give them to other people.
Venus exalted. Where art is more valued than the artist. Understanding and collecting answers
was something for me that I did, but I never applied them to my life. I just collected answers.
That's all. It did not make any difference to me what it would mean to me personally. I was just
collecting answers because that is what the 4.3 can do.
Pluto in detriment. The rationalization of irresponsibility as an act of refocalization. They need to
collect these answers for whatever reason.
The potential to enjoy the formulas with no regard to their practical application. None. It is just a
matter of having answers. The other side of this is: The potential to justify such a process in
order to maintain it, which is a lovely thing to do. I have been doing that all of my life.
Fortunately, now I do something with them. It is a very funny trait.
4.4 The Liar
We reach the upper trigram and get to the resonance of the first line, the Pleasure and the
timing process. Here you have The Liar. Role playing as an art form. The actor.
Sun exalted. Fantasy protects and nurtures a sense of purpose and reason, no matter how
misguided. Saturn in detriment. Time always brings humiliation. Here, time is mentioned again.
You play the game of having the answer. Let's say you are sitting in an office and your boss
walks by and says, "By the way, do you know how to run the 41762 machine?'" and you say,
"Yes". It is your role to say yes and you play out that role. If you do not really know, you will
have to find out how it works very quickly from somebody else before the boss says, "Did you
get it done?" Often, time will bring humiliation.
This is pretending to understand, which can be wonderful. It can be very artistic. It helps to be
able to explain an understanding if what you are pretending to understand is really something
you do understand.
The potential to find or illustrate the formulas through fantasy. What really happens to these
people is that they are driven (Youthful Folly, yes, I know) to figure it out. This is their way of
getting to understand. First they lie and then they run like hell to catch up with their lie. Every
once in a while they get caught up in the game.
The other side is: The potential danger to see the fantasy as fact. This is because the moment
you say, "I know how to run the 41762 machine," and the boss says, "Okay, show me," you are
in big trouble.
4.5 Seduction
Here we come to a real key to the nature of what the whole logical process is about. The fifth
line is a line of universalization and the fifth line wave has to do with the nature of seduction.
This fifth line is called Seduction. It is one of the things to recognize about the nature of the logic
system (and I can't repeat it too often) that you have three gates of the logic system in the
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throat. The 62nd, the 31 st and the 16th gate are not pointed towards a motor. It is enormously
difficult for logic to find its energy. One of the keys to that is the capacity to be able to seduce
that energy. "Would you please finance my experiment?" That is a very difficult thing to do in
this world. There are millions and millions of people trying to get somebody to finance their
experiment so that they can prove something and bring their solution.
The nature of seduction in terms of the logic process is the universalizing element of answers.
An answer that has universal potential is deeply seductive. When you are looking at these fifth
lines of potential, I hope you get the image of them that they are deeply spiritual or religious. We
saw the fifth line, The Saint, in the abstract process, The Confessor in the individual process,
and here you come to The Seducer. Remember, at the other end, you have a black magic gate
in the same circuit. The seduction is: "I have an answer for you but you have to provide me with
some energy, and then I will give it to you."
Allowing others to assume responsibility as a shield against potential punishment. You have to
get them to understand so that they will take the chance with the experiment, so that they will
bring the energy to it. More than any other of those lines, this line recognizes that the answer
will only work if there is energy.
Jupiter exalted. Unearned reward and recognition. Pluto in detriment. A life of lip service to
antiquated and unsatisfying values. Cynicism. This is the cynicism that says, "I am the one that
has the answer, and I have to go around seducing people to try to get the energy." What I call
the money lenders. You have to go out into this world. I can remember, in the days before my
work was published, what it was like to go to publishers and have them laugh at me. They told
me that I was just bananas.
The potential to succeed through the understanding of others. Logic is a collective process and
it is about sharing, and it is deeply important to understand others. Again, it goes back to the 1
8th gate and the resonance to that other potential that is about human rights. It is about
recognizing that the real answer for humanity is very important.
The potential for cynicism that comes with always having to acknowledge the understanding of
others. They have to
understand you in order that you can get your understanding out. These people can be very
bitter. The dull thing is when it stops there at the 4th gate because whoever gets it to the throat
gets all the credit. Whoever speaks the voice of that opinion in detail is the one that gets the
credit and not the seducer in the 4th. Those who speak it in the throat and the understanding is
refuted is the one that gets punished, not the seducer.
4.6 Excess
Here you get to the sixth line, to the roof of the house and this line of transition. This is actually a
very fascinating line because these people do want to understand. They are not interested in
answers. They know how easy answers are. They are very aware of that. They tend to be
people who, for example, as students have an enormous difficulty learning this. They have
difficulties in bothering to understand at all. They are looking for something else. They are
looking for the next line which is the 29.1 , The Abysmal, the gate of saying yes, and the gate of
making a commitment to a process. It is actually making a commitment to life itself. These
people say, "The answer does not matter but life matters. I do not care what your guru says. I
am happy chopping wood." Life matters.
The line is called Excess. Repeated and conscious abuse of norms will not escape discipline. In
refusing to pay any attention to your answers, you can end up in situations where understanding
is the only thing that will save you, and you will get punished because you are not ready. You
haven't been open to understanding.
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Mercury exalted. The development through experience of techniques to apply self-restraint.
These people do not offer you their answers. They are looking for something else. They are
looking for life itself. It is not the answer they are seeking out. The answer doesn't mean
anything to them. For them it is just purely intellectual and these are of course very intellectual
gates. They are not about what you do. They are just about coming up with formulas and the
sixth line knows that. That answer is not what life is about. Life is life.
The other side of this has Mars in detriment. The gall to accept punishment as the price of
excess. "Well, I don't want to understand so I am not going to school. I will not be what you think
I should be. I am more interested in going out and living my life. The answer is not important to
me."
In the white book, Mercury exalted. The potential in a logical process to recognize when the
understanding is not complete and have the patience to wait out the process. The answer does
not mean anything; only life means something.
Mars in detriment. Despite recognizing the incompleteness a lack of patience with the process.
"I can't be bothered with all of this. It is not important to me. Where is my life? Do I have a life?"
These are people who always wonder whether they have a life. What is very funny about these
people is that, like the 47.6, they are actually ready to go straight down against the circuit to the
other side. The 47.6 wants the truth. It is not interested in what makes sense. It is looking to the
17. Can I get an opinion? Will the facts help me?
When you come to the 4.6, the logical gate, it is looking for the life. It is looking for an idea. It is
ready to cross the circuit, to break the circuit and jump over to the other side. They are both
collective, after all, and mirrors of each other. So at the end of their process, they are both
looking at each other. One wants to be a believer and one wants to understand. It is quite a nice
joke.
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HEXAGRAM 5 WAITING
The gate of Waiting. The fundamental attunement to natural rhythms. Waiting as an active state of
awareness. The channel 5/15 is universal in all forms of life on this planet. Rhythm is the miracle of what
it is to be alive. Whenever I deal with people that have the 5, 1 tell them the same thing: "Pay attention to
your life and see what your natural rhythm is, and then fix it. If you discover that every day at four o'clock
you like to have a siesta and you need that hour of rest because it is important for you, when you
recognize that it is an important rhythm in your life, fix it and make it a habit, a ritual." Concentration
needs the proper patterns to work through. The moment you realize that this is your ritual, a natural
rhythm for you, you are using your energy properly.
It is so important for 5's to be ritualistic, to recognize their natural rhythms and to fix them. In this form of
waiting, fixing your natural rhythm is an active state of awareness. It is not awareness but a state. The
moment that you are following your fixed natural rhythm, anything is possible because the energy is
right. When the energy is right, anything is possible in the logic process.
5.1 Perseverance
The first line always speaks for the essence of a hexagram and the first line is Perseverance. If the captain
must, he goes down with the ship. Understand what that means: if you notice that every day at four
o'clock you are fatigued, then you need to rest. You fix this as a ritual in your life. Nobody is allowed to
telephone you. Nobody is allowed to come and visit you. Nobody is allowed to disturb you. You are in
your nice apartment building on the 39th floor and, all of a sudden, you hear a fire alarm while you are
lying there on your sofa during your ritualized, fixed time. If the captain must, he goes down with the
ship. Don't break your ritual. You may die in the fire, but 99 times out of a hundred you won't. Everybody
else will have burnt apartments, but you will be fine and they will say, "Why didn't you come out?" You
answer, "I was just lying down having my nap."
If the captain must, he goes down with the ship. Don't let anybody interfere with your fixed rhythm and
your ritual. If you need to eat at 8 o'clock in the morning and your lover says, "I eat at 11 o'clock," let
your lover eat alone. Eat at 8 o'clock in the morning. This is the nature of this line.
Mars exalted. Here again, the loveliness of what Mars can be. Courage in the face of adversity. "I am not
going to respond. I stay here in my ritual no matter what, and nobody will take me out of it." This is the
power that lies in this fifth gate.
The Earth in detriment. The premature and often disastrous urge to cut one's losses. This is the moment in
which, because there is no awareness (we are dealing with energy here), the ritual can be given up. "I will
leave the apartment.
It is okay if it burns but I want to save my life." They will die and the apartment won't burn. This is the
irony of these things.
The power to maintain one's own rhythm; or Weakness in maintaining one's rhythm when challenged.
That is why Mars is so powerful in the exalted. Understand the basis of what this hexagram is saying; it is
so important. No logical process can be a success without a fixed rhythm. You can't just study 24 hours
and then go and pass an exam. If you study 20 minutes a day for two weeks, you might. You have to
establish the proper rhythm and fix what works for you. This is what logic demands and it is also what
leadership demands: rituals. Wte have flags and people who salute. We have all these rituals of state. Wte
need all these fixed rituals; otherwise, the understanding process does not work.
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5.2 Inner Peace
The second line has such a nice name, Inner Peace. The second and the fifth line both have Pluto in
detriment. That Pluto experience is coming up in 2000 to 2002. We will have a lot of children coming
into the world who will carry this energy deep inside of them, and there is going to be an explosion of
discomfort out of that.
Second lines are always projecting outwards. This line is projecting outwards that they have their fixed
rhythm. "I have my natural fixed rhythm." That is what they are projecting out into the world. It may or
may not be true. The ability to ignore the temptation to take premature action. These people project
outwards the ability that they will not take premature action and that they live out their natural rhythm.
They are projecting out that natural rhythm to others.
Venus exalted. The gift of maintaining composure through idealizing tranquility. Pluto in detriment. Inner
peace experienced as stagnation. It may be one thing to say "This is my natural rhythm," but that rhythm
in itself may not be producing anything. So many people that have the 5 and the 15 have to spend so
much time in their life doing nothing. This is all about being in the flow. Being in the flow does not mean
that you are always moving. It means that you move, you rest, you move, you rest.... People who have the
5 and people who have the 15 go through periods where they can't move; there is nothing to do. They
suffer because of that and then they run around like crazy and then they suffer because of that. There is
nothing to do and then they suffer because of that and then.
In the white book, we have: The power to be comfortable with one's rhythm. This is what is being
projected outwards: this comfort. Also: The drive for power that is constrained by a fixed rhythm. In the
moment that the fixed rhythm does not feel good, they do not really know whether that is their natural
rhythm or if they are living out a projected rhythm which they take for their natural rhythm, but it is
stagnating because it does not take them anywhere. They do not feel like it is productive and in that
moment, they may start looking for some other kind of rhythm and break their ritual. "Yes, I used to have
a nap everyday at four o'clock but one day my apartment was on fire and I ran out." Now, I don't nap
anymore because it is bad luck.
They break from what they were projecting as their natural rhythm, and suddenly you find out that is not
what they are at all. That is the child that says, "Every night from 7 o'clock to 8 o'clock I do my studies."
One day you go over there and you open the door; you find the window open and they have been gone for
hours because that fixed rhythm was leading to stagnation. Of course, they don't know underneath
whether it is really their natural rhythm; there is this temptation to break that and try something else, with
predictable results.
5.3 Compulsiveness
When we get to the third line, it has a very intense name, Compulsiveness. We know that this third line is
about trial and error. One of the things to recognize about that is everybody who has the 5.3 is always
convinced that their rhythm is a mistake. If they are lying flat on their back and they cannot move a
muscle, they are sure that it is a mistake. They are sure that they should do something. If they are running
around like mad and they cannot stop running around, they are convinced that it is a mistake because they
are sure that they should be on vacation somewhere, lying flat on their back and doing nothing. They have
a great deal of difficulty in accepting what their natural rhythm is because there is always this sense that
there is something wrong with it.
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The fear engendered by the sense of helplessness resulting in unnecessary stress and activity. This sense
of helplessness: "I have this rhythm and I am stuck with it, and I don't really like it. I want to be able to be
busy or I am out being busy and I want to rest. I don't really like this."
Neptune exalted. Compulsiveness can be limited in its negative effects through Nights of imagination.
This is the best therapy for somebody that has the 5.3. (I hate the word 'therapy; I'd rather say
'methodology'.) In those moments, where they assume that their fixed rhythm is not correct, that it is a
mistake. I always tell them the same thing, "Well, imagine what it would be like to do something else."
This can be deeply imaginative. There is a great power in this: while they are flat on their back, they can
dream, or while they are running around being busy, they can dream about another fixed rhythm. It is
better for them to imagine the vacation while they are running around instead of taking it. Better for them
to imagine being busy when they are lying down instead of doing it. That is much healthier for them.
Understand that logic requires an enormous amount of imagination. Logic, after all, is rooted in the talent
process. Without imagination logic can never work. So much of the logic that we process in our lives, we
process at the imaginative level, making imaginative constructs in our mind to see within our imagination
whether logic resonates for us, or not.
This is an opportunity for these people, in that moment of seeing that their rhythm is not correct for them
or is a mistake, to allow that simply to work out. It is the rhythm. Don't change it, but go in your
imagination to wherever you want to go. This is the healthy side of this process.
Underneath is: Unable to surrender and at odds with one's own rhythm. The Moon cannot stand still.
What happens to these people is that they will constantly break their rhythm, discover that it is not good
for them either, and they will eventually come back in their process after repeating the mistakes over and
over again about breaking their rhythm. They will go back to their natural rhythm and they will suffer
with it. With the third line, there is always inside of it this sense of, "Is this really what it is? Or is this a
mistake? I don't like this rhythm, I want to change it."
5.4 The Hunter
When you get to the upper trigram and you get to the fourth line, this is a line of externalization and we
know that it is the resonance to the first line, where the captain must go down with the ship. Here you
have what is called The Hunter. Waiting as a guarantee of survival. Having your natural rhythm or fixing
your natural rhythm is a guarantee of survival. There are very few guarantees in this life. Here is one. The
guarantee is that if you live by your fixed rhythm, your natural fixed rhythm, it is a guarantee for survival.
Uranus exalted. The creative genius to transform the most passive experience into active achievement.
This goes back to something very basic about understanding how wonderful our form is. It goes back to
the fact that we don't have to do anything. It is built in. This is genetics, after all. If you are not struggling
with your own rhythm, not trying to change it, not succumbing to group pressure, this is the opportunity
for a deep creative process to really see what comes out of you in your natural rhythm because it is you.
Out of that natural rhythm comes the pure logical process that belongs to you and it is a guarantee that
you will survive, and not because of somebody else.
Sun in detriment. The vanity of a personality so strong that, unwilling to hide behind a blind, threatens its
very survival. This is the other side of the captain that goes down with the ship. This is just cuffing your
losses and off you go. Remember that this line knows that there is another side. This is not the love of the
body; this is the love of humanity. "I need to serve humanity," The fourth, fifth and sixth lines of the 5th
hexagram are there to serve humanity. In that externalization in the fourth line, you have this fixed
process where it says, "I don't want to wait. I want to serve humanity now. I don't want to accept this
rhythm." The moment that they don't accept that rhythm, their very survival is threatened. There are so
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many people who, out of impatience and pressure, will break their natural rhythm and try to live another
rhythm and become very ill. They become unhealthy because it is not for them.
Illness has its manifestation in many ways. It is not just simply chronic obvious illness. It is deeper:
psychological things and all kinds of emotional damage that can be done to them and the crushing of the
ego. All of that has a root in this line. One of the things to recognize about the fourth line is that it really
needs to be able to express that fixed rhythm as a contribution to the totality, as a contribution to
humanity.
The Hunter, in the white book: The power to make the best of one's fixed rhythm. This is the genius. On
the other side: The drive to deny one's own rhythm with predictable costs. If you go against your own
rhythm, you will pay a price. Always. By the way, my advice or information for these people with this
detriment is: they must make sure that there is nobody around them who is trying to pull them away from
their rhythm because they will succumb. Mechanics protects you by giving you a way to work with that
mechanical information.
If you have an aspect that can bring you into a detrimental field which is not healthy for you, you have to
make sure that there are not those forces around you that will automatically do that. If you have the 21.3
and you are powerless with superior forces, then don't work for superior forces because you will be
powerless. If you don't want to be pulled away from your fixed rhythm, because that tendency is always
in you if you have this detriment, don't allow anybody to do that. Don't allow people around you who do
not accept your rhythm. Mechanics is a great teacher that way.
5.5 Joy
I love this line. It is a lot of fun for me. V know what the fifth line is all about. Wye know that this is
universalization and we know that everyone who carries the fifth line is going to be projected on.
Everything about the logic process is about the repetitive process. To repeat over and over again in your
fixed rhythm, concentrated in order to produce out of that a corrective process to eventually, through
experimentation, come to a point where after many years, mastery is the result. In the second line, we had
a projected field of inner peace going out and when we get to the fifth line, we have a projected field
going onto the fifth line person and that projected field is called Joy.
It says: Waiting as an aspect of enlightenment. There are only two out of the 384 lines that mention the
word enlightenment: the 54.4 which is Enlightenment/Endarkenment, which is another thing entirely, but
here we have the aspect that we call enlightenment. Please understand something: enlightenment is a
projection of those from the outside onto somebody else. Please understand that. Be very clear about that.
Be very clear about something else, too: when Pluto comes roaring through into this fifth line and it hits
the detriment, we are going to have a collapsing of this concept of enlightenment in terms of the nature of
the so-called Master. Please understand that enlightenment is a projection. It is the outside turning on the
light and focusing it on somebody else and projecting that light onto them. They may or may not be the
master of what is being projected onto them, but it can look like that.
Waiting as an aspect of enlightenment. What they are projecting onto these people is that they have this
fixed rhythm and, because of that, they seem so calm. The apartment building is burning down and you
are lying there on the sofa and somebody comes racing in and says, "Don't you hear all these fire alarms?
This place is burning down," and you look at them very calmly and you say, "Please, don't disturb me. I
am having my rest. Close the door, will you?" Do you know what that does to your reputation later? They
say, "That was unbelievable. This one really knew."
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To remain calm as the ultimate aesthetic... This is about beauty. This is not about truth.. ..and thus
recognize the inner meaning of being. And when you get to that point you should get the joke: Pluto in
detriment. Joy dismissed as an illusion, waiting as a failure. We will have a huge generation of children
born with this line. Millions and millions of them will be born in the beginning of this new century
carrying something that has not been in humanity for 156 years, bringing this energy out. It is the
beginning of what people call the movement towards Aquarian knowledge, that projection is not enough.
After all, this is all about logic.
In the white book: The power to be calm and to find one's place in the flow, or Disillusionment with
recognizing one's place in the flow. Remember, because it is projected on these people that they are calm
and at peace within themselves or enlightened, they'd better not make any mistakes.
I have friends in America who are hosts for me when I tour there. They are guru chasers, so they get a lot
of masters that come by and stay in their house because that is what they like. The stories that they tell:
somebody who has that projected field on them and you bring them into your own home and then you
realize, "Oh, my god. What is this?" Everyone who plays the spiritual master game knows that it is the
projection coming from the outside and there is this deep fear inside of them, whether they can live up to
the standard. The key is: you'd better be calm inside. I love this line.
5.6 Yielding
When we get to the sixth line, we find a very unusual sixth line here because it has no polarity. We only
have exaltation, so it is being fixed in a very special way. It is called Yielding. Waiting is never free from
pressure, physical or mental, and is often punctuated by the unexpected. This takes us back to the irony of
logical energy: that it is suffused with faith and belief. There is all this faith built in underneath because
nobody really knows whether the solution can ever be achieved and whether the leadership can ever take
place.
It says that 'waiting is never free from pressure' and that it 'is often punctuated by the unexpected'. The
unexpected is illogical. This can be very disturbing sometimes. "I was doing step one, two, three, four,
and all of a sudden something happened, something out of context." That 'out of context' allows for the
unfolding of the whole process. There is always this sense inside, and this makes logical people even
more determined to find out why the unexpected happened, so that they can make sure that it always fits
into logic. It is like people who talk about coincidences instead of recognizing geometries. The geometry
is clear: you know that these things are meeting each other.
Accepting that in one's fixed rhythm despite the pressures, growth will be empowered, and often through
the unexpected. Built into it is that through the fixed rhythm there will be growth, but, Neptune exalted.
The growth of awareness that comes with bending to the universal flow. It is still a sixth line. It does not
really mean that they are going to give their energy to humanity. They can, but that does not mean that
they will. Again, they are looking at the whole circuit which means that this line is looking to the 31st
gate at the end that says "I lead with this formula that we have experimented with and proven. It is a value
for us and reliable in the future."
You don't know that in the fifth gate. You can't because it is just an energy. It has no identity. It knows
that there is much more and because of that, it does not want to give its energy to anything that it cannot
lead. That is a key for it. In other words, "Will I be really able to take this energy and go down this road.
Can I actually do it?"
These are people that are pulled into the flow unexpectedly. They can be standing on the sideline
watching the river flow and everything is fine and all of a sudden a boat goes by and catches them.
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Unexpectedly, they find themselves in the flow. The logic process: they would love to kidnap all these
people that have these energy gates for logic and hold on to them and keep them in the cupboard
somewhere, so that they can really activate this logical process. It is very hard for the 5.6 to escape the
demands of society. Society comes along and says, "Excuse me. I know that you do not want to get
involved but we will take you along with us."
When you look at the logical process, you see that it does not involve the ego. There is no ego in logic.
When you get to this sixth line, you get to this uncertainty about whether one can really lead or whether
one can really go through this logical process and get to the solution and be able to do something about it.
The very next hexagram, the very first line is the 26.1, which is tribal. It says: A bird in the hand. The ego
has a lesson for logic: be satisfied with what it is that you have and, by the way, if you can't be satisfied
about it, lie.
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HEXAGRAM 6 CONFLICT
We have the 6th gate in the channel of Mating, a design focused on reproduction: Conflict, the gate of
friction. Its energy is the hope and pain wave of intimacy. Its potential is the awareness or, let us put it
this way, the emotional wave whether to bond or not: the channel of intimacy. Understand how the wave
works: the wave does not take you from one side of the line to the other. Don't confuse this. The
emotional wave is not going to take you from the exalted to the detriment and back again. You will get
that from meeting people who will have planets in those positions and are going to fix you in one end of
the wave or the other. You have the transits that do that, as in any other process in the chart. The thing to
recognize about the hope and pain wave, and I will illustrate that to you as we go through the lines, is that
it operates in each part of the line. There is a hope and pain aspect to every part of these lines, whether we
call them exalted or in detriment. The exalted will have a hope and pain wave and the detriment will have
a hope and pain wave. It is not that the wave is going from one to the other. Don't confuse that.
The 6th gate is the gate of the pH in our biology and this is what establishes the barriers. If you look at the
heading of the 6th gate in the Rave I'Ching, it says: The fundamental design component of progress. The
law that growth cannot exist without friction. Remember, the other side, the 50th gate, is tribal law. Here
in the 6th gate, we have biological law. Life, reproduction, cannot exist without friction, without this gate.
There are many things in that. The 6th gate is the place where the motor sits. That is the motor that
generates these six different waves. The thing to keep in mind about the nature of this gate is its mystical
mystery because this law about growth is rooted in this wave. We would never be in an evolutionary field
unless we were living in the emotional wave. The emotional wave is what makes the general field fertile
and that fertility is not just about reproducing children. The emotional field is a fertile field. It can also be
sterile. That is the other side.
The 6th gate carries within it this law that growth cannot exist without the motor. That is why, the
moment somebody has the 6th gate and they step into your life, they dominate your frequency because
they come with the power of that motor which stimulates growth. By the way, if you are not in resonance
with that power it may do exactly the opposite. In other words, it can begin a process of decay that leads
to friction and conflict in the mundane sense. It is very important to see that this gate has enormous
power. It is a gate of fusion. It fuses feelings, moods and sensitivity, these three streams that move
through the solar plex center.
In a sense, what you are really seeing is that out of the 6 and out of its motor come those three streams.
They are born out of or grow out of this law of the 6th gate. What we call feelings or moods is rooted
here. The key is that each line that I am about to take you through in the 6th gate resonates with a wave.
Each line is, in that sense, the fundamental expression of each of these aspects of the wave. I like to think
of them as six different gears and each of them are expressed in language in each of the lines in the 6th
gate.
6.1 Retreat
We start with the first line. We are talking about the foundation of intimacy, about the line of
introspection, and it says Retreat. This is one of the first things to recognize about the nature of the
emotional system: when it comes to intimacy, the very first lesson of this hexagram is to wait. It is about
retreat. Wait and see. The Realization that wasting one's resources against overwhelming odds is not
courage but folly. The moment that you step into that role relationship (the 59th gate is the role in which
you find intimacy) you have to be very clear because you are in the wave. What felt good today can feel
terrible tomorrow and there is nothing that you can do about that.
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Pluto exalted. The power of regeneration that can embrace retreat as a phase and not as a failure. On the
other side: The inferiority complex, where retreat is experienced as personal weakness. What we have
here in the first line is the wave of weakness and strength. This is the nature of all intimacy. This is the
foundation after all. What has to be examined, what has to be looked into, what the introspection is, is
into the weakness and the strength. Both of them have to be revealed. One of the things that I remind
emotional people is that when you meet somebody, tell them, "I am an emotional person. You may not
like me tomorrow." If they are ready to take a chance and see what you are like tomorrow, everything will
be a little bit easier in your relationship. But if they discover that themselves, you will get all that wave
back on you because they are going to mirror that emotional wave.
The emotional stability to accept conflict. Think about how that emotional stability works with a wave of
weakness and strength. You can feel weak and in that moment you accept intimacy. It does not mean that
you are unstable because you are weak. You can be very stable and recognize that you are weak, and you
need the intimacy to give yourself strength. At the same time, you can have the emotional stability to
accept intimacy from the strength of your wave. Guess what? You get both because it is the wave. The
thing to recognize about looking at any aspect of any line in any hexagram in the emotional system is that
the line is always going to work both ways. It is going to work for both sides of the wave and everything
in between as it moves through the arc of that wave. So you will always get both sides. If it is fixed, you
get both sides of the side that is fixed.
Emotional instability in times of conflict. When you are weak and unstable, you will accept intimacy, or
when you're strong and unstable, you will accept intimacy. It does not make any difference. It is still
going to operate in the wave. You will always get both ends. The nature of this first line tells us the most
important thing about all of our bonding. To recognize so clearly that we, as the byproducts of our
parents' relationships and all of the children that have ever been brought into the world, have been
brought into the world ignorantly. We have been brought into the world based on these genetic
imperatives that are much more powerful than we are.
The very first step that we can take in lowering the chaos level in the world at the moment is to honor the
first rule of the law of growth: don't be in such a hurry to create the growth. This law says: better that it is
a fine tree than a lot of weeds. % it and see where the seed should be planted and when the seed should be
planted and with whom before one goes out and decides that life is going to end up as a garden. This is
very important because we do not listen when it comes to our emotions. Emotions make us deaf and
blind. When it comes to intimacy it can make us deaf and blind and dumb. The first law is, "Wait a
second. You are very nice. I would have married you yesterday but today I don't feel like it. I wait and
check it out and I will see." This is the foundation of the house of intimacy.
6.2 The Guerilla
When we get to the second line, we get to projection. The projection wave is the wave of advance and
withdrawal. Remember about the nature of the 6, that it is always looking to the 59. After all, that is the
other side, the genetic roles that are being played out on the other side. The second line is not
introspective. It is not looking into the relationship at all. It is not looking into what the nature of intimacy
is. It is not looking at the weakness and strength. It is just the kamikaze. It is either going into full
advance or racing back in full withdrawal. It is one or the other. That wave is going to operate on either
side of the line.
The Guerilla. Not to be confused with the animal, though sometimes they are similar. The ability to
maximize an inferior position... because it does not know the nature of intimacy. It hasn't looked into
what intimacy is. This is why this line can often be non-fertile because it has not looked into the nature of
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intimacy. ...through timely contact and withdrawal. This wave of advance and withdrawal is already built
into the nature of this line.
Venus exalted. Aesthetic sensitivity and mental detail can find the weakest point. The ability to advance
and the built-in wave of withdrawal: the withdrawal always reveals within the beings themselves their
own weak points, and out of that they learn when to advance against the weak points of others. It is a
mechanism that teaches them where others are weak emotionally. These are great button pushers. They
can go exactly to that button and they go, "ding, dong," and the emotional wave rises in that moment out
of the projected field.
Mars in detriment. The kamikaze, striking but moot. Kamikaze can be beautiful. These people that lunge
into relationships like there is no tomorrow. They've taken their oath to the emperor and they dive into
their relationships blindly, aiming for the heart. They often crash violently.
In the white book we have: The sensitivity to find the weakest point in a conflict and to exploit it
emotionally. Understand: that will operate in a wave. Sometimes that sensitivity advances at the weakest
point. Sometimes the weakest point is to withdraw from it. These people can really withdraw. They can
project the other away in that sense. In other words, they know when somebody will need them
emotionally and they can automatically withdraw from it because they know that this is their weakest
point and that they can't get it then. Or they can project the emotional field in on the other side.
Underneath: A lack of sensitivity that blunders into conflicts. These relationships are non-productive, but
at the same time, like all non-productive things, they have a value. It is like my trivia that I keep
collecting. Eventually, these people are very good in saying, "This is a non-productive relationship," and,
"That is a non- productive relationship," because they get to see it through the experience. Built into the 6
is what is built into all these waves: built into that wave is the experiential way. There is an experience in
all of that that has to be gathered. The difficulty with the 6.2 is that it is always either advancing or
withdrawing without really grasping the nature of the intimacy. It can be a difficult line, like all second
lines.
6.3 Allegiance
When we get to the third line, we get to the end of the lower trigram. We get to the line of adaptation and
this line is the first possibility of being able to really meet the other side. This is the end of the lower
trigram process and, in that, the third line has the introspection and the projection and can be very fertile
when it makes contact to the other side. The wave of this line is allegiance and rejection. It is making
bonds and breaking them. This line is called Allegiance. The ability to secure support and create strength
out of a weak position. When connected to the harmonic gate 59, mating that results in conception. This is
a deeply fertile line.
Neptune exalted. The destruction of old forms through union... It is very important to understand this.
This is bonds made and broken. This is there for genetic continuity because this is a very bad place to try
to build a stable relationship. This is bonds made and broken. Bonds made and broken is part of the
genetic strategy that is going to be there in the resonance to the sixth line when you go beyond what
intimacy is. Here in the third line it is all about the fact that we have to make sure that the gene pool is full
of the unusual so that we survive whatever future evolution is going to bring us. So, this third line of
allegiance is about the destruction of old forms through union. It is not bringing in the same old genetic
material that you always had in your tribe. This is about bringing in something really new, new blood,
new information. Usually, it was the traveling sales person.... either mundane as sexual union or exalted as
universalization.
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Pluto in detriment. The rejection of allegiance as submission to established order. The whole nature of
this is that the 59.3 in its detriment is promiscuity. This is bonds being made and broken.
When you come to the Book of Letters: The depth of feelings that can enrich union and intimacy. On the
other side: Sensitivity to controls which may eventually reject intimacy. Think about how that works:
these people will never like control. They will always be sensitive to control. When they are at their high
end of the wave it does not matter. When they are at the low end of their wave it does. That is important
to recognize for people who have that line. Somebody at the high end of their wave will submit
themselves to the established order, to the bargain of the relationship, and at the low end of the wave will
totally reject that. This is a genetic strategy to make sure that there is genetic diversity, which means that
it can be a very difficult thing to handle in relationships.
By the way, I tell all couples who go through this process which is rooted in the third line to recognize
that the relationship cannot be what everybody else assumes it should be. These people have to take
different vacations. They can live in different houses. They can have different lives and they can have
continuity in the bonds made and broken. This is the nature of the third line. If the relationship honors the
mechanics, then the relationship can be healthy. That is true for any of these qualities of intimacy. The
thing to recognize is that you are always having the wave operating in the line. That is why the waiting,
the retreat, is necessary from the very beginning, so you can be clear about that. "I am in the high end of
my wave and I can submit to this authority but, before I can make a commitment, let me see what it feels
like when I am at the low end of my wave. "
Jiirgen and I were talking today about energies in houses and how nice it would be if, before you go into a
place to buy or rent, they let you sleep there for two or three days, so that you can really see what that
energy is like. If you go in at one part of your wave, you may feel that it is okay and at the other part of
the wave, it may not. The reality is that relationships are the most important thing for us. If you ask
people what is really important to them, they will tell you that it is who they can love and who is there in
their life. We should then consider how little attention we pay to that. We are so quick to jump on the
nature of the wave without seeing, "Wait a minute. Let us check it out." This is the whole thing about
being emotional: waiting, so that you can see. If you do not wait, you are never going to know,
particularly when you are dealing with the third line. The third line has to learn how to adapt to bonds
being made and broken. You will never trust them, but they make babies. Irresponsibility breeds.
6.4 Triumph
Triumph. A position of natural and unchallengeable power. Here we have gone to the upper trigram. We
have the line of externalization as a theme and this is always fixed on a single track. The single track here
is to be the dominant emotional force. This is: "I am going to put my emotions across." This is the
externalization of the emotional field, getting the emotional field across.
Sun exalted. The charity and wisdom that must come with victory and the movement toward new
horizons. It already says: they have the victory. If one is focused and one -tracked and is displaying
emotional energy, there is nothing that you will be able to do about that. They win hands down. The only
difficulty is when they are doing that with someone who is emotionally undefined they get a very
powerful mirror back, and then you have an enormous amount of emotional tension that gets built.
Pluto in detriment. The conqueror and purger. The externalization of the emotional motor can be very
painful. There is a joke in all of this: this is the wave of kindness and meanness. The movement of that
energy at one level is that this power display of energy expresses itself as very kind. It is the emotional
wave that overwhelms you with its kindness. It can also overwhelm you with its meanness. It can be very
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fixed in both. It can be fixed on being emotionally kind to you and then (the wave can be a lengthy one) it
will flip over to the other side, all of a sudden.
The role on the other side is brotherhood/sisterhood. The strategy is that you are not going to be able to
fuck with someone until they are your friend. I am crude for a reason because this is what it is all about. It
is a strategy: I am not able to be penetrated or penetrate until this person is my friend, so that there is this
power wave to create the intimacy. That power wave is either kind or mean. By the way, some people are
enormously seductive by being mean. We have a whole world of masochists and sadists. It will always be
there because it is part of the matrix. It is built into this line.
In the Book of Letters: The power of emotions to dominate a relationship. The whole thing for these
people is that, in terms of the mundane, they are much better off with people in their lives who are already
emotionally defined. They have a very difficult time with people who are undefined emotionally. Every
time they display their power, they will get the mirror. That mirror can be so intense that it can lead to all
kinds of real meanness. It can be explosive and violent, like all emotional things.
The lack of emotional control that is destructive in relationships. That operates in the wave. Sometimes
that lack of emotional control simply ends up being just kind. Then it is seeking out the kindness. It can
be mean. It can be the other side. It will always move through the wave. But the thing to recognize about
this line is that it is putting out this emotional process, regardless. It does not matter what the situation is.
It is the one that has to have the emotional control. It is the one that has to dominate in the emotional
field. These are people that, if you are upset, they get more upset. If you are an emotional being and you
have one of these people around, they will be more emotional than you over you being emotional. Your
husband dies and they cry harder. That is their kindness. They can also be much meaner. You can see that
with kids. One kid is mean and the next kid is meaner. The poor victim on the other side that used to be
one of their friends.
6.5 Arbitration
The fifth line is Arbitration. The wave here is selfishness and selflessness, and this is all about seduction.
This is about being the seducer and the seduced. We call it a line of universalization. All universalization
is about seduction. This is the fulfillment of the hexagram.
The faith derived from analytical diligence and emotional control that permits a higher authority to judge
a conflict. That can be very mystical. What it really says is that time is the only authority that will allow
clear assessment of the nature of any intimacy. Remember, this line is in resonance to The Guerilla, to the
projected field and to the dilemma that comes out of advance and withdrawal. This is different. It is at a
higher level.
Venus exalted. Harmony furthered through the avoidance of direct conflict. That harmony is about the
inner harmony. After all, you have to love yourself first. This is one of the laws about who is worthy of
your love. Love yourself first. This is the first step. At that moment you come to Arbitration.
Sensitivity to conflict can lead to the avoidance of intimacy. "I will go up and down in my wave as an
emotional being. I need to find harmony within myself and not any old intimacy is going to work. I have
to see which intimacy is best and the moment I see, I will seduce it. If it allows me to seduce it, it is for
me." That is the whole nature of seduction. The seducer and the seduced are one.
On the other side of this is the Moon in detriment, Where a party to arbitration sees itself as the best
possible judge and will only accept judgment if it is the victor. In the Book of Letters: Insensitivity to the
concerns of others in a conflict. This is really looking for what is the nature of the relationship. What kind
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of bargain will we have? What kind of house will we live in? Will we have a white picket fence? Will we
have three or seven children? What is built in here is a sensitivity to what the intimacy has to be, the
universalization of what intimacy is supposed to be. This is all about being sensitive to the other and
recognizing whether they are the right relationship for you. If not, don't have anything to do with it
because this kind of intimacy is there to lead to the production of children.
The whole thing is that, unlike the third line which is all about any kind of genetic material as long as it is
new and is going to change the old form, the fifth line is interested in intimacy that can be maintained,
that can stand in time. So, this insensitivity to the concern of others: one of the things to see about that is
that the fifth line isn't looking for a dilemma in its relationship. It is looking for a harmonious relationship
that will work. They are very fixed in that and they do not put up with people who try to break into that
harmony. They end up wanting to be the ones who are always the arbitrators, even at its best.
6.6 The Peacemaker
When you get to the sixth line, you get to the top of the house. You get to the line of transition. This sixth
line in its resonance to the third line is strongly fertile like the third line but it is less likely to reproduce. It
is looking for something much greater in that. What it is looking at has nothing to do with the other
person. It has to do with the world their children will live in. This is a deep look over the top of the roof
out into the world. If you could hear these people in their wave, they would say at the high end of the
wave, I know that I have to have children but in what kind of world will they live?" At the low end of the
wave it is, "I know that I should have children but it is a terrible world they will live in." On the other side
they say, "I am not going to have children because the world is awful," or "I am not going to have
children because I can't be sure that it will be a better world." This has nothing to do with the nature of
direct intimacy and in that sense it can be something that can appear to be deeply apathetic.
This is the wave of sympathy and apathy. It is in resonance to the role of the One Night Stand. I remind
people that this is deeply misunderstood, this One Night Stand. That may be the only time that a sixth line
will actually have an intimacy: maybe once in their life or maybe a lot, until they learn in their wave. The
transition field is what will happen generationally.
Remember, this is the defense circuit. This is where life is being generated. The law of growth for
humanity is: Make more. Here it is not about who I will make more with. It is about what kind of world
are my children going to live in. By the way, that can be deeply delusional.
The Peacemaker. The discipline and integrity of a superior force to unilaterally cease conflict to permit
surrender and survival of its foe. "I know that the world out there will never allow my children to have a
decent life, so I am not intimate with you." It can seem incredibly rational. "I am not going to get
involved with this relationship because I know that the result of this relationship will bring a hard time in
the world." You hear these people make these kinds of comments all the time.
Mercury exalted. The highest form of reason is that life is sacred. "I know that I must have children, but
what kind of world will they live in?" This is that transition point
Venus in detriment. The peacemaker whose actions are just but whose terms are unacceptable. I know
what kind of intimacy I would like to have with you as a person. I know what intimacy is. I am a sixth
line," says this person. "But I am not interested in that. I am interested in what world my children will live
in. If it is not a good world, I don't want to have anything to do with this." What judges that? This is an
emotional wave after all.
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In the Book of Letters: The emotional power to end conflict tempered by feelings and sensitivity to
others. "If I will have children, I will have them with you." That is the sympathetic side. The apathetic
side is not caring whether they understand why, or why not. You will not engage in that intimacy. This is
the whole thing to recognize about this sixth line. The sixth line here, particularly in this sense, doesn't
have to engage in intimacy. Intimacy for them represents something much greater.
The emotional power to end conflict but only after one's conditions have been satisfied. They are always
looking for a way in which they can be the ones who are in charge of the emotional quality of the
relationship. They are the ones that are setting this condition for what the possibility can be. Often, these
people end up with partners where they both work and try to make the world a better place. We have a lot
of these sixth line people. It is in the nature of the sixth line to make the world a better place. They are
often couples who will be doing service work or dedicating their time to the community, working out that
process. Here are my conditions. Let me establish the conditions. Vvre have to work for a better world so
that our children can come into a better world.
When the emotional spirit awakens in the 55.6, the resonance will come from this sixth line. This would
be the first aspect of the sixth gate that will have an emotional awareness that will lead to a whole new
perception of the nature of the world. We will eliminate a lot of this fear that is there that the 6th gate
sees: the fear that the world can be a horrible place. The 6.6 looks over to the 46.1. They want to know
that their children are in the right place at the right time.
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HEXAGRAM 7 THE ARMY
This is one of the Sphinx gates and essentially, in many ways, the most influential. This is a gate that
leads to the gate of Influence. When we looked at prenatal infrastructure in the second gray course, the
31/7 is the first channel that is initiated in the development of a human being. So, this channel has
particular importance. When look at the circuitry of logic, you can see the deep limitations that are built
into the logic system even though they are so important to us. The limitation is that it is very difficult for
logic to get access to energy. The logic system from the throat does not have a direct channel access to a
motor. The throat to the G center or to the splenic center does not provide a motor, which is why we end
up in the logic system with all kinds of committees and all kinds of discussions and research.
Experimentation is the goal of the logical process and, unlike the 13th gate which is there to look
backwards and to accumulate past experience for the advantage of society, the 7th gate looks out of the
window of the car into the future. It is saying: this is a straight road. It seems that everything is going to
be okay for the next couple of hundred kilometers. Above the lines it says: The point of convergence.
This is the place where the future of humanity comes to a point. It is a very important one for us.
Humanity needs the security of safe, reliable patterns. By design, the need for leadership to guide and
order society. The most important thing is for humanity to realize that it is hierarchical. Society needs to
be ordered and guided and there are those who guide and those who are guided, and those you order and
those who are ordered. It is the nature of the logical way that the pattern is built on a hierarchical
structure.
Think about what the 7 does. It establishes a pattern and because of the pattern being for the future, if that
pattern can be expressed, it can become influential. We are looking at a classic example at what happens
with the collective process. At the end of the Second World War, most of Asia was deeply poor and the
Americans, as they entered into Europe, invested in infrastructure in Japan. The Japanese started to make
factories to produce goods that would be exported, not goods that would be for their own market. They
became successful at that, as we all know. They became an enormously successful society creating large
infrastructure projects to create large amounts of manufactured goods to export into the world in order to
make a living. That became a pattern that, by its very success, became influential and that pattern was
passed on to other Asian societies, so that we suddenly had an age of so-called Asian tigers. All of these
Asian tigers together have been following this pattern for prosperity. They have been building all these
factories in order to sell those goods overseas.
Nobody paid attention to the fact that, if you follow that pattern long enough, you get to a point where
there is nothing but factories and nobody to buy the goods. This year (1997) with Saturn in 21 now and
before, because it has been in a retrograde process, we have an enormous financial crisis in the world. The
logic system is there to provide us with secure patterns. Unfortunately, unless those patterns are properly
tested and experimented with, we can always end up with difficulties and then society goes into a state of
chaos because without the reliable pattern everything falls apart. The vast majority of the middle class in
Asia has lost at least half of their life's savings in the last three months. Humanity has been shocked by a
pattern that appeared to operate properly, but when it finally got out to full maximum experimentation,
suddenly it turned out to be an enormous problem. This pattern cannot be repaired because it is a pattern.
What will be required is mutation and that mutation does not exist in the world right now to be able to
deal with that dilemma. It still has a long way to go before the cards are played out. The 7th gate is there
to provide us with secure patterns for the future but, like my illustration, it does not mean that the pattern
is necessarily going to work in the long run. This is what the individual role does. It knows that time is
everything and that only time is truly the test, but the logic system is desperate to get things out into the
world, desperate to get the energy to get their experiment out into the world. The moment that an
experiment works, does not mean that we should jump on the band wagon. It has to be tested over and
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over again. The nature of the role of the self in interaction: what is the role of leadership for humanity?
We have the following six variations.
7.1 The Authoritarian
The first line is the basis and the foundation of all leadership. The foundation of leadership is obvious. It
is authoritarian and that is something for us to recognize. No matter how much we would like to see the
equality in all things, it does not exist. What we have is vast differentiation which creates an inherent
hierarchy. The Authoritarian. The iron hand, both enlightened and despotic. In other words, authority will
be either positive or negative because that depends on other factors. Sometimes it is both at the same time.
Venus exalted, as in the basic values and rules imposed on a child. For most of our history, that is the way
it worked. Those who ruled us assumed that we were rather infantile and had to be treated as children so
that we would able to survive. So we had kings, shahs and popes who ruled over us and thought us to be
rather immature and infantile and had to be looked after. We were their children of the state. We belonged
to them in that sense.
The other side of the authoritarian is: The distorted intellect that believes only it knows best. Whenever I
meet people who have the 7.1 in detriment, I always tell them, "Fine. Good. If you only know best, good.
If people do not agree with you, tough." Never look at what seems to be a negative line and say: "You
have to fix that." No, you have to live that. Like The Optimist in the 13.6, the moment that you live that
aspect you will discover that it is good and bad. It is right and wrong. It is great and terrible. Don't get
caught up in thinking in the language of it that, because there is a detriment in front of it, it means that it
is inherently difficult. This is not true. Most people have trouble with their exaltations.
In the white book: The capacity of the Self to guide with authority; or The capacity of the Self to insist
that its authority is best. Remember that it is a first line. Most people who have the 7. 1 are trying to figure
out what authority is. It is not that they are transpersonal and they are ready to externalize that as
influence. When their opportunity comes, they must be authoritarian. It is the basis of leadership. There is
a famous American president, Harry S Truman, who had this wonderful plate on his desk that said: "The
buck stops here." Somebody had to be at the end of the line somewhere, all the time. That is the way it
works.
7.2 The Democrat
Obviously, this is a gate in which there is the capacity to lead. This is the role of the leader and so, when
you come to the second line, this is somebody who does not know that they have the capacity to lead. It is
other people who see it. This is the basis of what we call democracy. The moment that somebody is aware
of that fact that they can lead, it is a different story. Others have to bring out this quality of leadership and
it speaks of the nature of our democratic system, which is based on leadership being dependent on society
providing the energy in that sense, that they provide the votes, as an example.
So here we have The Democrat. An overview line: The ability to lead by serving the will of the majority.
Of course, the whole thing about the democrats is that they just don't know that. They don't know that
they have the role. The role is found out and the moment the role is found out, they have this opportunity
that they can be brought into the democratic process.
Neptune exalted. (Remember what I said about Neptune exalted.) The application of universally accepted
systems. When connected through the Alpha Channel to Gate 31 Influence, the potential for widespread
and revolutionary effect on society. This generation that was born in this century, I think in the 20's, this
is an essential ingredient for the maintenance of democracy in the world.
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This is a second line that is very exalted in that sense and it does have universal impact because the
universal impact is that logic only works out of the sharing process and this is the best way to share
leadership that we have. I think it was Churchill who said: democracy is not the best that is possible, but it
is the best we have.
Mercury in detriment. Elitism and denegation by democrats of democracy. This is very common. The
second line, the paper tiger, you look inside and it looks like they have that role and you bring that role
out in them only to discover that they really would like to be dictators. It does not mean that they are
democratic. It simply means that the possibility of that is there. Of course, this is a very common thing.
The moment that these people really get into power, the moment that they get to assume their role, those
are the people who turn around and say: the very voters that voted for them are too dumb to vote for them
again and they are going to have to manipulate them because they are not very intelligent. It was the same
very unintelligent people that found out that these people had a role in the first place, and put them up into
that position.
In the white book: The capacity of the Self to lead when chosen. Very important: to lead when chosen. Or
The capacity of the Self once chosen to feel superior to those who chose them. "I am your leader and
therefore I am better than you.' The second line is itself surprised to have been elected. The classic
example for a 7.2 is Indira Gandhi.
In looking at transits you have to pay attention to the outer planets because when they go through any
particular gate or sequence of gates, you are going to have generations of people coming into the world
that carry a similar kind of energy. One of the most interesting phenomena that are taking place since the
Second World War is the level of diversity that exists in the nature of roles. For example, when I came
into the world, if you had a doctor, the doctor was known as a general practitioner who was somebody
that came to your house when you were sick. He was a real doctor and did everything. If you take a look
now at any kind of medical registry or any kind of community in the Western world, you will find that
there are thousands, literally thousands of different doctor roles. There is an enormous diversification that
we have now.
The reason for that is that we have a whole generation of people that came into the world after the Second
World War, like my generation who was born in 1948, that had Pluto in Leo. Pluto stayed there for a long
time impacting heavily on these role gates through their expression by being in the 33, the 31, the 56 and
the 7. There was a very strong and long term activation by Pluto there. In my generation, Saturn was also
there and, in my particular case, Mars was there. So, we have a generation of people that are somewhere
in their late 40's or early 50's that carry in them an enormous amount of potential to actualize roles in the
world. I have three different lines in the 7: the 2, the 3 and the 6. This is a very common thing amongst
my generation to have a lot of active role gates. I have Saturn in the third line and I love it. The Anarchist
is a very funny place for Saturn to be. That is the last thing on earth Saturn is associated with.
7.3 The Anarchist
The Anarchist. An overview line. It is trial and error in finding a role. Remember the parallel in the 13.3
is Pessimism. That pessimism is inherent in TheAnarchist. My way of relating to this line is what
Groucho Marx, the comedian, taught me. He said, 'Never belong to an organization that would have you
as a member," and this is the nature of the 7.3. The rejection of any institutionalized order. You notice
that it is an overview. It does not mean that you reject your mother because she has given you milk. It
takes time before you get to the point where you realize, through trial and error, that the institutionalized
way will not work and you are not somebody that is waiting to be chosen.
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The Moon exalted. The constant need for change no matter what the prevailing conditions. Mercury in
detriment. The nihilist. In the white book: The drive of the Self to express many roles; or The capacity of
the Self to deny value in any role.
It does not mean that these people do not get into the institutions. They do. Of course, the moment that
they get in, they rebel against them and eventually have to leave in one way or another; this constant
movement.
On the detriment side, it can get to the point of just pure nihilism. Nothing works so let's break
everything. People really misunderstand anarchy. I am a great burner of things. I have burned so many
things in my life. There is a great joy for me in burning things. I have burned books that I have written
that nobody ever got to see and I would just sit there and watch it burn. That is the anarchist. It burns so
that something new may be built upon it. No guarantee that it will be something new, but the pessimism
that says that whatever is there stinks and, unless we knock it down, nobody will build up anything new.
The nature of the anarchist.
7.4 The Abdicator
When you are dealing with these roles gates, the upper trigram, particularly the fourth and fifth lines, are
always very significant because they have the opportunity to recognize how the role can get out. They
know that there is a gate at the other end. When you come to the 7.4, The Abdicator, you come to a line
that is often misunderstood. The fourth line is one-tracked. Here you have somebody who needs to
externalize their role as a leader. They need to. It must come out for them. That is what they are here to
do. They know that there is another side so they know that they have to deal with that other side because
everybody in the 7th gate knows that logic requires energy, and the fourth line needs to compromise.
Think about what the fourth line always represented in the 10.4 because it tells you so much about it:
Opportunity. This is always a line of opportunism. If you have a lover, don't leave him or her until you
have another lover. If you have a job, don't leave it until you have a new one. This is the nature of the
10.4. This is what opportunism is about. So, it is important for the abdicator to realize that when the
opportunity is there, they can externalize their role, but the opportunity comes and goes and they won't
always be able to externalize it.
The willingness to accept the judgment of the people and/or the rule of law. What I try to explain to the
7.4's that their leadership role is of value until it is rejected and then it is time to go on to something else.
This is the Peter Principle, which is to reach a level of incompetence. In other words, you get to a certain
point where the majority no longer wants your leadership. It does not mean that your leadership is bad. It
means that the majority is ready for another pattern. It means that your time is up.
The Sun exalted. The grace and wisdom to step down for the benefit of the whole. In the white book: The
capacity of the Self to accept the judgment of others. Everything about the logical role demands that there
will be collective backing for that role. It cannot work otherwise. It is not possible, even when you have
the most vicious dictator. They did not get there alone. You can have the most vicious 7.1 you can
imagine, connected in resonance to the 31.1. You can have the deepest darkness of leadership and you
have that person surrounded by those that are backing that. Nothing, no role, no leadership is possible.
Who is it to lead them? There always has to be someone who wants them to lead. All roles in gate 7 have
to be voted for and backed.
So, on one side is the ability to accept that, "You made me a leader, I have done my work. You don't want
me to be leader anymore. Very good, I step down." There is nothing wrong with that. It means that that is
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correct. But the moment that we get into the detriment, they stay in power. The refusal of the Self to
accept the judgment of others.
In the black book: Uranus in detriment. One who must be forced from power by overwhelming
opposition. Like the listener in the 13.4, they are so busy externalizing that they forget that it has its
limitations. If you keep on listening and you don't take a rest, you get ill. If you keep on trying to lead
when your time is up, you breed revolt. It is what we see in the world all the time. You get somebody into
power and everybody is excited. They are wonderful and get voted in; they can be democratic (they can
be any kind) and then they just stay there and don't go away and their time of leadership, their time of
value is over, and everybody knows that it is over.
What they are doing now is that they are filling their pockets and their children's pockets; for example, a
guy that is running for the 7th time. He can barely breathe for god's sake. This is what this is about. In
other words, one -tracked in living out the role and yet not realizing that the role has to come to an end
and, instead of them becoming sick, somebody makes them sick. These are people that get the plug pulled
out. These are people that have their telephones disconnected. Like Mobutu in Zaire, who transformed
from national hero to king of thieves: he was valuable to the country as he brought a new pattern. By now
he's already outlived his purpose and is now filling his children's pockets until the country's had enough
and puts him into exile.
It's not like they are not supposed to have a role. They are here to be wonderful leaders and then give up.
These are the kind of people that accept to be the chancellor for Germany for one term and after five
years, they go home. They did their job. They did what they wanted to do for the people. The people are
satisfied and then they step down because it is time for somebody else to take over the job. In that sense,
it is very exalted. It is the first line's harmony: It is limited authority in terms of time span. That is what
we have in our political systems: we try to limit the authority of our elected officials. Vke say that they
can only be in power for four years or they can only run twice, or whatever. This is what we are
establishing out of the fourth line.
7.5 The General
The line of projection: the fifth line in its harmony to the second line. The fifth line is always waiting to
be the savior (like the 13.5) of democracy. The General. The whole thing about being a 7.5 is that
everybody projects on you that you are the one that should lead, whether you are equipped to lead or not.
Anybody who has the 7.5 has to pay a lot of attention to the fact that they are called on in life to lead and
if they can fulfill that, obviously their reputation will grow. The whole thing about this is that it is
projected on.
Leadership whose authority must be absolute and is sanctioned by society in times of crisis. That is when
these people are important. In the harmony to democracy, society will give up its democratic leader when
it is in trouble. This line is patterned on the ancient Greek community in which there was a relative
democracy, but when they got into trouble they would go to one of their military commanders, one of
their generals, and they said, "Look, we are in a lot of trouble. We will give up our democratic ways and
we ask you to be dictator until you defeat our enemies. By the way, when the enemies are defeated we
want you to allow us to go back and be a nice democracy and we will give you a pension and we will
have a parade for you and everything will be terrific."
This is what is expected. This is what humanity sees as the greatest value of a leader, which is that the
leader is there to guide us in times of crisis. This is when leaders are important to us. If you go back
through history, those leaders that are remembered are leaders that took their people through a time of
trial or turmoil or war. So the general, this form of leadership, is called upon in times of crisis. In other
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words, these are not people to be involved in a day-today leadership. They are called to leadership in
times of crisis.
Venus exalted. The gift of attracting loyally necessary in harmonizing the potential of society. Again, it is
a very important social context here in the most transpersonal of these lines. The capacity of the Self
through its role to attract loyalty. It attracts loyalty before it starts. There are all kinds of people that say,
"Look, we are in trouble and I know that general so-and-so could really help us." The loyalty is already
there because when this 7.5 is around, people always project on it, "You know, he would be the best
leader. He/she would be able to solve our problem."
The Neptune in detriment. The commander isolated from his troops and obsessed with victory at any
price. In the white book: The lack of loyalty when the Self insists on isolation. This is a very common
thing that happens to 7.5's, which is: they do not show up in times of crisis. They stay isolated and the fact
that they are isolated when there is crisis all along makes everybody else nervous. As a matter of fact,
7.5's are the kinds of people that whoever is an authority may even find them to be very threatening
because they know that if they came out into public, they would be strong leaders and might challenge
their own role. All projected fifth lines do not necessarily want to participate in the process. They want to
be selective about when they take leadership. They are not fourth lines. They are not there to lead all the
time. So in the detriment, when the 7.5 does not show up, does not come around and make itself available
in times of crisis, there are those that can actually find that threatening, that are the ones who are trying to
fulfill that role themselves.
So The General has these two sides to it, but always remember: it is coming from the projected field. It is
coming from the need in times of crisis because humanity is in trouble, because society is in danger and is
threatened. But as long as that role is not offered in times of crisis, then the person itself becomes
somebody that is considered to be dangerous, isolated from its troops, isolated from its supporters that are
out there saying: we really need you to come now and help us because we are in so much trouble.
There is this wonderful story of the Messiah coming into the world. He comes into the world, he hangs
around for a while, then he checks everything out and he starts teaching a few people and he says: "You
know, I don't feel like doing this. Everybody is projecting on me that I am the Messiah, and I feel like
somebody who wants to farm." So the Messiah gives up and goes and sits on a farm. Because the
presence is there and the projected power of the savior is there, all kinds of people get upset and they kill
him because he would not play his role as Messiah. It is a very nice story. Very typical of the 7.5 in
detriment. The lack of loyalty when the Self insists on isolation. I am blessed that I don't have the first,
fourth or fifth line. Life is cute sometimes. I would not want to be a 7.5, not with my configuration.
7.6 The Administrator
Sixth lines are always so strange. Remember The Optimist in the 13.6 because it helps to understand The
Administrator in the 7.6. Everything about the sixth line is about sitting and looking, paying attention to
what is there in the circuitry. The moment you get to the 7.6, you actually get to a great deal of pressure
because the logical circuitry is so important. The right patterns for humanity are so important, but there is
something else. The Optimist in the 13.6 carries with it an optimism or a hope that any interaction is
important and the mystical beauty of the 7.6 is the recognition that all human beings are leaders, all of
them, and that they all have a role in this life and that can be very beautiful.
So, here in The Administrator is an overview line: The ability to share and justly apportion power. Think
about the 7.6 child. It is 5 years old and it says to its father, "You should really organize your time better.
I know exactly what you should do and, Mother, I know exactly what you should do." How long will that
kid live? The fact is that every time that you look at any line and you see it in the context of a child, you
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automatically will understand how distorted our upbringings have been. If you don't know the nature of
the child, then how is it even possible to nurture their being? You can't. You can only respond to that in
your own conditioning. So the moment that this child begins to administrate, the first thing that happens is
that it is told to shut up and mind its own business and it learns to sit on the roof and it learns to watch
what is going on.
Mercury exalted. The power to communicate the frameworks of responsibility. The fact is that, because of
their perspective and recognition of the importance of the whole logical process, they recognize that
many, many roles are involved. That is a real gift, to be able to see them.
In the white book: The capacity of the Self through its role to communicate responsibility. I am a 7.6 and
I tell everybody that they do not need a guru or a master. Everybody can be their own chief. This is
classic of the 7.6. By the way, for most of my life that was the last thing I would bother to tell anybody, I
would just watch their folly.
Uranus in detriment. The bureaucrat whose lust for power eventually destabilizes the organization. The
capacity to recognize clearly what roles people should have also leads to possibilities of power and abuse.
The fact is that it does not happen all that often. Yes, it is there. You are not really going to see 7.6's who
will be active in the direct leadership business. What you will see out of the 7.6 is the creation of what we
call bureaucracies: The Egyptian disease where you have administrators who administrate the state and it
just gets bigger and bigger, and everybody has a role. In that way, out of the detriment comes abuse of
those powers where the entrenched bureaucracy, the administrators, have more power than those that are
elected. Recognize that most 7.6's, by the time that they are adults, by the time that they get into their
twenties, have already given up on the business of being leaders and they tend to be very good at pointing
out what other people can do. Everyone can be a leader.
The 7.6 then leads to the 4.1., this is quite a process. Timing is everything. You have to wait for the right
time. Pleasure (4.1) cannot be achieved without perfect timing. This goes back to the whole business of
what it is to be in direction anyway.
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HEXAGRAM 8 HOLDING TOGETHER
Moving down from the throat center, we move to the polarity gates, gates that point up to the throat from
the G center: not gates pointed up towards the mental process (the gates that are primary gates of
communication) but gates that are primary gates of identity, gates that communicate the nature of the
identity. Each and every one of these gates pointing up to the throat, including the 8th gate, has a direct
connection to the G center, to the center of our identity. Therefore, these gates speak of three different
qualities of identity. We have collective identity: the logical Identity in the 31 and an abstract identity in
the 33. The 8th gate in the center speaks for the individual identity. It is called Holding Together.
Above the lines it says: The basic worth realized in contributing individual efforts to group goals. The
whole nature of this gate is its voice and its voice says, "I know I can." It also says, "I know I can't." Like
all of these voice gates, you have the polarity built into it. "I know I can make a contribution to group
effort through my individuality." This is the nature of this 8th gate.
8.1 Honesty
First lines always speak of the essence of a hexagram and this first line is called Honesty. It says, The
truthful acceptance of limitation and the recognition that it can only be transcended through sharing. This
is so important: the individual is always limited because nothing in the individual process can actually
flower unless it is being accepted either by the collective or the tribe. We have already seen that social
pressures are going to be very important in the development of an individual life. This 8th gate is a deep
recognition that the individual is there to guide the collective. After all, the 1st gate which is on the other
side is one of the four gates of the Sphinx. This is a gate of direction and it is part of the central column
that runs up and it is all about a mutative process.
The 8th gate expresses the identity of the individual that says, "I will share with you my knowing for your
benefit." That is the individual process. "I want to be able to contribute my knowing, my recognition, my
capacity to explain to you what the direction is and I want to share that with you for your benefit so that
you won't hurt me because I am different than you are."
On one side you have Neptune exalted. The awareness that the whole is always greater than the sum of its
parts. This is a deep recognition, the understanding that nothing, the knowing in that sense, is complete
unless it involves the totality. This is the beginning of the process of the individual acting as an agent of
change in the world because they recognize that they must penetrate into the collective.
On the other side of this, the Mercury in detriment. Withdrawal. The fear of losing individuality in a
group environment. This is the fundamental fear of all individuality. "I know that I can make a
contribution to the collective but does that mean that then I have to be just like them, when I don't want
to? I can contribute by directing them but I don't want to be like them because I can't. I can only be like
me. " This fear is underneath.
In the white book: Knowing that creative expression must be honestly communicated and shared.
Understand that the 8/1 is the channel of the Creative Role Model. This is about being an example and not
being a leader (that is logical), not being a witness (that is abstract). It is about being an example. An
example does not dictate. An example acts out its example in the hope that that can be a contribution to
the totality.
The other side: The design to share creativity at the expense of individuality. "Yes, we love your
contribution but from now on you have to make your contribution on Mondays, V*dnesdays and Fridays
from 10 to 12." This is always the threat to the individual. There is a balancing point between maintaining
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one's individuality and reaching out to the collective. All of my definition is individual and I have gone
through this process all of my life. I deal with you as a collective. I have found a medium for that because
I happen to be an individual that can explain myself. In being able to explain myself, I can connect to the
collective but believe me, I am different than you and I know that and nothing about you will change me.
The joke is that I want to make a contribution for you. After all, the individual is doing that to protect
itself. That is number one.
The second thing is if it works, the individual feels very good about that. Connecting to the collective is
important. There is no Human Design System without the collective. The individual becomes stronger in
that, whether or not it is connected to the ego. If it becomes egotistical about it, that is another story but
they do become stronger and they do contribute to protect themselves.
Please understand: that is by design the only genetic path for mutation. After all, it is for others. In the
end, this contribution is there to provide mutation. By the way, that mutation can be good or bad. You can
bring disease into the world as an individual and you can kill half the population. You can bring a mental
virus into the world that destroys the way people see the world or think. I mean, everything is possible in
the nature of what mutation is. It is just about the process but in that sense it is always about offering.
That is why the third line says it is a phony. When we get to the third line, we get to that story.
8.2 Service
When you get to the second line, you get to projection. You are dealing here with a gate that says, "I
know that I can make a contribution or not." When you get to the second line, they are projecting
outwards the fact that they are there to make a contribution. It is the great line of service. Remember the
nature of making a contribution: they are making it without really recognizing what is being contributed
as a direction. They do not really have the depth. They just project out that they can make a contribution.
Service. The highest good, to serve selflessly. The Earth in detriment, where reward is a prerequisite of
service. It is a very simple line. In the white book: The potential to be an example through unselfish
expression; or The willingness to be an example for a price. One or the other. These are the kind of people
that will guide you through the city. You pay them and they'll guide you. They will take you along and
they will leave you off when they are finished with you. They can do a very good job, individually, taking
the collective on a tour and you pay them and later they'll leave you. Or they will do it selflessly: the lost
tourist in the city and somebody comes very nicely and takes them on a tour and shows them where
everything is. It can be selfless. It can be for pay but they do not really know what they are contributing.
Because of that, they are projecting out that they can make the contribution but maybe they can't.
Second lines can be paper tigers. They can always be putting out this genetic signal that says, "I can make
a contribution," and when they are asked to make the contribution, they may not be able to fulfill it and
then they go through the crisis of all individuality: when it cannot fulfill its example then it is shunned.
The collective will not pay any attention anymore.
My favorite description for the 8th hexagram is the taxi driver. This is really what the 8th hexagram is all
about. You get into their car and they'll drive you along. They will take you from place to place. This is
their nature but they are not there to stay with you. They are there to go through this directive process and
make their contribution. So many people that have the 8th gate are disturbed by the fact that they can
make a valid contribution for others but those others soon forget. They go on to other things.
This is about the selflessness of the individual that is necessary. The joy comes from being yourself. The
contribution to society allows you to maintain your integrity as an individual because they will leave you
alone if you can make a contribution. Everybody thought that I was crazy until I had a book published and
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then it was risky. Then they said, "Well, he made his contribution. We can leave him alone now. We don't
have to worry about whether we should put him into a strait jacket."
8.3 The Phony
We get to the end of the lower trigram. Remember that lower trigrams are only concerned about the
nature of the gate itself. This is the line of John Paul U. You can enjoy my analysis of that.
The acceptance of the style and not the substance of communal actions. Again, all third lines are lines of
adaptation. They are the basis of trial and error. They are based on this learning process. What is
recognized in that learning process is that the individual cannot survive unless they find a way, a mode, a
role, a mask, a style for being able to connect to the collective. What happens to people that have the 8.3
is that they look for the right kind of style. Jean Paul II found his style. He has a tall hat, a stake and they
all have their costumes. Through that style, even though he is very individual, something is expressed to
the collective. The collective gets access to his guidance, to his example, because he is a master of that
style. To be a phony is neither positive nor negative. It is simply the real description of what this is. The
style is everything.
The Moon exalted. The perfected and rarely detected superficial intimacy. This is classic of the
individual: the style to create the intimacy and yet, at the same time, a deep protection that says, "Hey, I
am still this individual."
The other side has Saturn in detriment. A shallowness that underestimates others and overestimates its
own ability to continue its deception without detection. Style is style. It is not substance. This is the
individual playing out a role and, in playing out that role, they make mistakes and grow out of that
process.
In the white book: The example as an expression through style, not substance; or An over-reliance and
unfounded confidence in style. These are people that when the collective is not interested in them and
their style has not worked, they cannot figure out why. "Why didn't it work? I mean I look like a guru, I
talk like a guru. Why didn't anybody come?" Style is not always the real thing but it helps individuals to
have a mask. The individual pretends to be like the collective.
8.4 Respect
When you get to the upper trigram in this gate of contribution that is designed to connect to the collective,
you get to transpersonal gates. So you get to the innate ability within the individual in this line: to be able
to reach out to the community or the tribe. This line is called Respect. Remember that fourth lines are all
about being fixed and onetracked but they are also deeply opportunistic, waiting for those opportunities.
The gift of naturally recognizing the contributions of others and particularly, the acknowledgement of
those who lead by example. Jupiter exalted. The uncompromising drive to assimilate. Remember
something about the 8: it is looking to the other side, to the 1. The 1 is the yang force. This is the creative
direction in life. This is the individual creative expression. You can imagine that the 1 is the artist and the
8 is the gallery dealer. That is their relationship.
The capacity in the 8.4 is to recognize the value of the creative potential on the other side and to see that
that creative potential, through their contribution, is something that can affect the totality. It is the art
dealer that sees the starving painter and looks at the paintings and thinks, "Oh, my god. This is
wonderful." He puts it into his shop and all of a sudden, they become well-known because that
contribution has been made.
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On the other side: Mercury in detriment. In a group where limitation is transcended, reason alone cannot
predict individual worth. As an example, the acknowledged leader of an athletics team is not necessarily
the most talented. The individual who is fixed on making a contribution can be the one that really
becomes the leader and the example in that sense. This example of an athletic team: you may have an
athlete on that team who is somebody whose very spirit is about making a selfless contribution to the
nature of how that team operates. They are the ones that will ultimately get the attention of the team and
be a de facto leader by the quality of their example. What is being very fixed here is the fixed
communication, the fixed expression of direction that the 8.4 knows it must make.
In the white book: The drive to contribute and be an example to and for others, and on the other side: A
gift for contribution that is not conditioned by limitations. This is a very positive line. These people can
be very one -tracked. What happens to them is that they are very positive for everybody else but they
suffer a great deal themselves. These are people that are always making a contribution and they don't
necessarily feel like they are recognized for the contribution they are making. Remember that there is an
intrinsic honesty in the resonance to the first line here in the fourth line. There is an honesty about who
can really lead and who can't, who can really be an example and who can't. When they make their
contribution, there is a sense that nobody is paying attention to them. The 8th gate can often feel unloved
for its contribution and, of course, the sphinx gates are not about love. They are about direction.
This is one of those things for all 8th gates to deal with: they have a capacity to contribute to others and
make that contribution without necessarily being rewarded. That does not mean that they do not get the
reward but it does mean that it is much more difficult because they are individual.
I want to make a comment on the end of this line where it says that they are not necessarily the most
talented. One of the keys to individuality: individuals are not here to be best. The moment that an
individual thinks that they have to be the best, it is over. The best is for the collective. That is a collective
thing. That is mastery, experimentation, to get to the point where you are really the best. But the
individual is here to be different. They don't have to be the most talented athlete to be the focus of
attention and to be the example that guides others. They just have to be themselves.
Whenever I deal with individuals, I always remind them of that: "Do not punish yourself in thinking that
you have to be the best. You never ever have to be the best. You only have to be yourself. If you are
yourself, you will be recognized and if you try to be the best, you will not." Understand the principle of
that. The collective process is about comparing and the individual process is not. So, the moment you are
trying to be best, it is all a comparison game and it has nothing to do with being individual.
8.5 Dharma
First lines always tell you the essence of what that hexagram is about and fifth lines are always about how
it is seen from the outside. The way that this individual contribution is seen from the outside is as
something that is rooted in separation. In other words, the way in which the outside sees the individual
through this fifth line is: "Let us take advantage of their direction but leave them once we get there." This
is great line of the taxi driver. This line is called Dharma. Holding together does not exclude eventual
separation. Successful union, after a proper term, will encourage separation. The fledgling once mature is
expected to leave the nest. This is right action that does not harm the integrity of the union.
It is very important for these people to recognize that other people need their direction but once they have
it, it does not mean that they must go away; it means that they must be allowed to go away. In other
words, for the person that has the 8.5, they can always make the contribution of direction but who they
make that contribution to isn't necessarily going to be consistent.
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We have two ways of looking at that. One way is the exalted side with Jupiter, The teacher. The other is
the Sun in detriment. The parent that cannot let go of the child, understanding only that its authority is
being challenged. "I know what is best for you," says the parent.
In the white book: Contribution as part of a process of sharing that accepts and expects limitation,
exemplified in teaching. The ultimate goal of the individual teacher is to have students that not only
transcend them but leave them. "Here, you have the knowledge. Go away. I do not want to see you again.
Take the knowledge and do your thing." This is the essence of that one side. It is okay that you are not
going to be there for the rest of this person's life.
On the other side, in the detriment, is this sense of loss in the capacity to make that contribution:
somebody accepts that contribution and all of a sudden they are gone. They have this sense of loss that
they cannot continue to live out this role of contributing. Contribution as an end in itself that neither
accepts nor expects limitation, exemplified by the parent that cannot let go of the child.
The ideal is that when you are the 8.5 taxi driver, when you get to where they have to go, you have to let
them out. You cannot keep them in the back seat. They have to pay you and go. Otherwise, you have a
real problem. This is the nature of the 8.5, this recognition. Remember that it is projected on them that
they can make the selfless contribution. "This one will take me. This one will guide me." Every time that
individual is being asked for their guidance (and they are always looking for that out of the 8th gate), in
that moment, this is a very important energy for them to come into contact with.
It is difficult when that energy is gone unless one accepts the nature of what this role is: to make that
contribution and recognize that it is not about fixing something for life. Again, that is the protection of the
individual, not to get caught up in who you contribute to and end up being conditioned by them, away
from your true nature. "You were so good at driving me in a taxi. Now I let you drive my bus."
Think about the dilemma of the 8. You have the 8 and you go into a department store and somebody
comes up to you and says, "Can you tell me where the such-and-such department is?" The 8 is always
going to be asked for their service, no matter where they are. They are always going to be mistaken for
people that can take you where you have to go. They are under a lot of pressure because of that.
8.6 Communion
When you get to the sixth line, you get to the end of the process and you get to Communion. It says: The
certainty which grows out of harmony. Venus exalted. The awareness of patterns that ensures correct
timing. This is one of the things that come out of the individual process which is the recognition that,
without the correct timing, because individuals are rooted in their moods, contribution may not be
successful. We all know this in one way or another, where you offer to make a contribution to somebody,
to offer them direction. If you offer it at the wrong time, nothing is going to work, even if you are very
clear. If you offer it at the right time, even if you are not clear, they are more open to it. Everything about
the contribution of the individual to society is rooted in a sense of timing.
Pluto in detriment. Doubt which may engender regret even in the most ideal circumstances. The polarity
in the white book: The gift of knowing when to contribute creatively; or Uncertainty in timing and regret
despite circumstances. Sixth lines are not about to make a contribution. Like all sixth lines, there is a
restrictive process within them. It is a process that says, "Yes, but will this contribution lead to mutation?"
In other words, if I am a taxi driver, I will only take somebody from A to B if it is going to change the
world and if it will not change the world, why should I bother and just be the conduit of that? Is it really
of value? Deep in the individual process is this ongoing need to find a way to bring mutation into the
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world. The sixth line is saying, "All right, I will make that contribution, but it has to be mutative. It has to
be something that really is going to be of value."
The knowing when to contribute is the recognition of patterns. Individuals need to come to grips with
that. They have to understand the collective and the tribe because if they don't understand the others, if
they do not understand their patterns, it will be much more difficult for them to make a contribution at the
right time that can be mutative.
Think about how that works. Several years ago, Martin Grassinger was doing homoeopathic work with
one of his patients. They had a problem and he had the right medicine which he gave them but it did not
work. This was in the early years, when we first met and I said, "Well, take a look at the transits and see
when that part of the body is connected." It had to do with the face. It was somebody who had an open
ajna and an open throat center. So, there was a transit coming, a nodal transit to the 43/23 that would
connect the open centers, so that this medicine which is designed for the pituitary gland could actually get
to these glands. He told the person to come back again and that he had found something that really
worked (the same medicine). He gave the patient this medicine during the nodal transit which lasted two
months and the problem cleared up.
The success of individual contribution is determined by timing. If you give the right medicine at the
wrong time, it means nothing. What happens is that this individual gets caught up in this process of
"Where is the right cosmic moment?" It is not just the mundane timing. It is the timing that unleashes this
process, unleashes this possibility, so that this contribution can lead to mutation.
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HEXAGRAM 9 THE TAMING POWER OF THE SMALL
We move to the logic process and take a look at rituals and patterns. Two of the 64 hexagrams use the
word 'taming' and there are two that use the word 'small'. The small has to do with the nature of detail.
The ability to tame is the ability to master the nature of the detail. The 9th gate is the gate of the mastery
of the energy for detail. This is the format energy of the logical process. One of the most difficult things
in the nature of what it is to be human, with the configuration that we have, is to establish logic in the
world. How difficult it is to establish understanding in the world because understanding does not have the
same access to energy as other processes. It does not have the same easy access to energy as the abstract,
the experiential process has. In order for us to establish logic and understanding in the world, it is quite an
ordeal to find the energy.
With the 9th and the fifth hexagrams, two gates of the sacral, we look at essential energy to manifest logic
and understanding in the world so that we can be properly organized and, in being properly organized, we
can have a relative perspective into the future. Only three gates provide energy for logic, the 58, the 9 and
the 52. They are a long way from having an opportunity to be able to manifest and most of the logic and
understanding that gets into the world is generated rather than manifested. Generated logic is quite
different because it is logic that can only come out of response: out of response to a need for the logic.
Above the lines it says: Potential can be fulfilled through detailed attention to all pertinent aspects. Don't
confuse this with a mental perspective. It is not mental. This is pure energy. This is the energy to fulfill
the potential through attention. This channel is all about being focused and concentrated. This is a deep
concentrating and focusing field.
9.1 Sensibility
When we were looking at the abstract process, we saw that the 42 has resources of energy. What we see
in the 9th hexagram is that we have a resource for concentration, what we call attention. The attention is
there. We don't know out of this what the attention span is. Just like the 42 has to go to the 29 to find its
commitment, the 9 has to go to the 5 to find out what its pattern must be. To be focused and concentrated
is never enough. This is the beginning of a process. It is a process that says, in the first line, Sensibility. A
balanced and responsible approach to problem solving. Pluto exalted. The ability to avoid frustration
through the creation of new forms. The reality is that the focus here is not simply on the given, which is,
"I have the capacity for attention". What is more important is how do I maintain that capacity for
attention?
Mars in detriment. After a hasty and frustrating search, the urge to kick in the door when the key is in
your pocket. This is not recognizing what the pattern is. This is all about simply having this energy for
concentration but not knowing where to concentrate, on what to concentrate. You think that if you
concentrate on remembering where the keys are, somehow that will work. When it doesn't, when you
can't go in there and find them, you get very frustrated and kick in the door.
In the white book we have: The power in focusing to create new forms; or The power to generate that will
lose its focus. Please understand this: this is about attention. % all know from children that to maintain
their attention, either you fix their pattern or you cannot hold their attention. Otherwise, they will just
move from this thing to the next because they do not have an extended attention span. That is why we
need, in the logical process, to have a codified system that develops our logic. Vita have to learn the
patterns of logic. This is very important for us because if we don't have the pattern, we can have the
energy for the logical process but not know what to do with it. These people become deeply restless. They
can focus their attention but on what? and how? and when? This is what they don't know.
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By the way, Pluto is coming in the 9th gate by the end of 1997. Pluto will transit this gate for three years.
When it says, A balanced and responsible approach to problem solving, it is not saying 'a balanced and
responsible approach to solving problems.' It is the process that gets to eventually solving a problem.
9.2 Misery loves company
What happens when you get to the second line, Misery loves company, the projection that is coming out
of the second line is: "I can solve the problem because I can focus." This is not how the problem is
solved. It is one necessary aspect in order to solve a problem eventually, but this is the illusion that is
caught up in the projection. So many students of mine over the years, the typical 9.2 students, study and
focus all the time and they don't actually learn anything. They study books all day and study the same
thing over and over again and nothing really comes out of that. That is the potential in this. To solve the
problem is not the same as problem solving. This is a process that this line projects out.
Misery loves company. Remember, we are in the collective here, so it is social. Collaboration with others
to temper frustration. They are projecting out: "I can solve the problem. I can concentrate." With that,
they get the energy around them that others say, "Okay, we will join in that process of concentration."
Remember that the logic process is a collective process, like a laboratory full of scientists all working on
the same thing in order to solve the problem. Science generally is a collective process. Logic works in the
collective field.
Jupiter in detriment. The overwhelming need for expansion can lead to errors in judgment, missed
opportunities and depression. The child that says, "But I study, why didn't I pass? I stared at it all day. It
got my full attention. I was focused on it." That is the whole thing about the second line: what is projected
out does not necessarily have the depth behind it. It is not introspective. It is just projecting out, "I can
solve the problems because I can focus." That is not solving the problem. That's the way to solving a
problem.
9.3 The Straw that breaks the camels back
This third line is an archetype like the 42.3. It is The overlooked minor element that always predetermines
failure. Whenever you see the word failure or mistake in a third line, it is okay because this is exactly
where it is supposed to be. It does not mean that there is anything terrible about that at all. It just means
that for certain in this third line, this process of bonds made and broken, of trial and error, of learning
from mistakes, is going to be accentuated.
Earth exalted. The use of force to temporarily overcome impediments. In other words, the moment that
something is not working in the concentration, to put even more concentration on it.
On the other side: Persistent force that saps vitality and turns molehills into mountains. These people will
always miss something. There is always a moment in which their concentration breaks. There is a
moment that the concentration just simply is not there and, in that moment, you can take the wrong turn
and go for a long detour. In that moment, you can just miss, literally, what is there. What is missed can
become an enormous thing.
It is the logic process that makes the word 'mistake' ugly. The abstract people do not care about mistakes.
Crisis is part of their way of life. But logical people get very upset with mistakes. "One and one is not two
but three." "No, two." It is this whole process of, "That is a mistake; you have to correct that." It has to be
right because the logic process has to be consistently provable for the collective. Making a mistake in the
logic process can create a lot of deep anxiety in logical people because the very nature of logic is to
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eliminate the mistakes so that we can know for certain. "What is this formula: E=MC2? Let's make it
certain. We'd better check that out. Otherwise, we scratch this thing away because we are not going to put
that into the world and predict naturally into the future with that, unless we can be certain that this
foundation is correct."
What happens here in the third line is the miracle of what logic always needs. Logic always needs the
illogic of a mistake because out of this can come so many wonders. That moment where there is
something that is missed, that moment that everything breaks down and is a failure, that moment can turn
into an enormous success. The classic example is of the scientist who, in the moment of losing their
concentration, allows something to get too hot and explode. Out of that explosion comes something
wonderful and, "Wow, that is amazing. How did that happen?" It is illogical and that makes them very
uncomfortable.
In the white book: The loss of power through the failure to focus. It is gone. You lose it in that moment.
The power is gone and you can't focus and then something will be missed because the concentration was
not there.
On the other side of this: The power to turn a focus into an obsession. Mature 9.3 people have learned a
lot, like so many people that carry the third line themes in their life. They get to learn a lot because they
make what other people consider a lot of mistakes. Out of all their mistakes they learn many things that
others don't get to learn.
9.4 Dedication
We come to our line of externalization, our line of being fixed. These people are fixed on the resonance of
the first line. They are fixed on problem solving, on providing their energy for the logical process. This
energy is basically the energy to be able to lead and to guide others through the experimentation with the
logical process. This will eventually go all the way up to the leadership channel, the channel of being an
alpha. So, it is about the process of gathering energy in order to guide humanity through understanding.
This line is called Dedication. Regardless of the pressures or stress, the disciplined attention to detail.
These people are fixed on being focused. These are people that must concentrate.
Moon exalted. Right action that leads inevitably to actualization. Right action being the action to
concentrate. This is what these people are there for: to live out clearly this fixed one way. Concentration
is their way. Mars in detriment. The persistent urge to want to skip essential steps. In other words, I have
concentrated enough. Now I want to act. This is not an awareness that can decide that.
You have two sides of this in the white book: The power to act on the potential of the focus; or The drive
for action that ignores the details. This need to generate: keep in mind that the logic process is under so
much stress because it does not have easy access to energy. The people who carry the logical energy gates
feel this enormous pressure on them to release their energy because the rest of the logical process wants it
so that they can do their experiments and can actually lead and guide. There is a great deal of stress in that
sense on the concentrating field from others.
Remember, again: collective and social in this context. The key in that is that they have this power and
they are externalizing this power. These are the people that help other people concentrate. If you have five
kids studying together and one of them has the 9.4, the moment that one of them says, "Let's take a break
and listen to some music," it will be the 9.4 that is saying, "No, we are here to focus and concentrate.
We'd better get this done." Logic is collective. They have that power to keep everybody focused on that
logical process.
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9.5 Faith
This fifth line is so perverse. It is one of the most perverse lines in all of the I'Ching. It is very bizarre. We
know that the fifth line is a line of universalization and we know that the fifth line, in the resonance to the
second line, rather than projecting outwards is being projected upon. Look at the keynote of this line. It
says, Faith. Faith has nothing to do with the logic process. This is a projection from the outside onto
people who obviously have a concentrative skill. The projection from the outside is, "We have faith in
them because they are concentrating. We have faith that the doctors will find a cure to... because they are
concentrating on..." But, like the student that does not learn anything, they may not figure it out either.
Nonetheless, this brings an element of the belief system into the logical process. It is, in that sense, that I
call it perverse because this is very strange.
As an overview: The trust that detailed adherence will lead to fulfillment. In other words, if you really
concentrate, you will really get it. Well, maybe. This is after all the projection coming from the outside.
The people who get that projection put on them are under all kinds of pressure to be able to fulfill that.
Jupiter exalted. Loyalty to the letter of the law. That is, "You concentrate. You do not take off from that."
Then this wonderful line in the black book: Earth in detriment. Like the mystery of God, doubt
engendered through the perceived illogic of a process. "How can I have faith that I will find the solution
when all I know to do is how to concentrate? There is something bizarre in all these people putting their
faith and trust in me; just because I can stare all day does not mean that I will come up with a viable
solution." In that, it brings an energy of doubt: "Is this all I have to do? Just concentrate?" Of course, it
isn't.
The power to focus and bring value to concentration; or Where the lack of power to concentrate leads to
doubt. This strange abstract concept stuck in the middle of how we universalize the energy to be
concentrated. If you have two kids and one of them studies and the other one never studies, and you ask
their parents which one do they think is going to pass and do well, the parent that has the child that
studies says, "I have faith that they will do all right. They are doing their work." The other parent says,
"No, I do not have any faith because they are not concentrating." That does not mean that the one who
does not concentrate fails and the concentrated one succeeds. This is the whole irony of this and this is
why it brings doubt. It brings doubt because this is only an aspect in a very complex collective process of
establishing logic in the world.
9.6 Gratitude
The sixth line is a very beautiful line because it carries with it a quality that you do not often see which is
the quality of joy. There is joy that is clearly evident in the 9th and in the fifth hexagram as well. This is:
The joy which comes with accepting small rewards for small victories. The real beauty of concentration is
that it is there to provide power to solve something, to bring something ultimately into a fact. Each step
along the way is really a value. As long as one is clear about what one is focused on, there can be
enormous joy in that process, but we know the limitation of the sixth line, which is: there must be more to
all of this.
The greatest problem that sixth line logical people here have is that they are trying to look at the final
solution, where everything has been worked out and the formulas have been established so they can say,
"I will work for that. I will concentrate on that and get my joy out of getting there." But you cannot know
in the logical process that you actually will get there. This line in the black book comes from an old
Chinese saying, A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.' If you take the first step in
agony, in anticipation of the rest of that journey, if you think that you will only take that first step, or that
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you cannot go to the end of that journey, you will never start on that road. This is the essence for the
logical process.
For the sixth line here, it is not about whether I can get to that final step or not; it is whether or not I can
find joy in each step. They will not take that step and they will not concentrate unless each step is a joy.
This is what it is all about for them. They have to have joy in this focus and concentration in their life. It
has to make them feel good, not the solution but the process. After all, this is what it is all about. This is
all about providing essential energy for a logical process and not for the solution.
Pluto in detriment, No single step is of value until the journey is over. If there is no joy in each step, they
will not get into it. They just won't and they learn that very quickly and then they start pulling back and
they do not give their energy for the logical process.
In the white book: Moon exalted. The power to enjoy the concentrating process. The Moon is bringing
that quality out. The moment you see the Moon connected to a line, you know that this line is going to
have a cycle. It is rising from a low to a peak and back to a low in its cycle and you know that you will go
through all of these aspects. Somebody who has the Moon here exalted, at the beginning of their lunar
cycle, that can be like the no-moon phase. They don't really enjoy it and the next day they enjoy it a little
bit more and so on, until they reach a peak and then they start sliding down the other end. Logic is about
repetition and it can get boring.
The other side is: The energy for expression that cannot find joy in the process until it is complete. In the
logic process, here is the ultimate joke: it is never complete. There will be people who will check out the
Human Design System for as long as there are people who check out anything logically, whether or not
generation after generation says that logic works. That is my old joke: when I was a student studying
science, I had to do all these old formulas. Those formulas have been checked for hundreds of years, over
and over again. The joke is, whenever I read in my favorite scientific journals that some old formula that
everybody thought was cast in concrete and somebody found a mistake. The other day, they just
discovered that they think that light actually has two different speeds, depending on where you are
standing. According to Einstein, there is only one speed of light. Formulas never get trusted and, of
course, that is the joke here. This is very deeply depressing.
If you really think that the only way that you can commit yourself to a logical process is if you know that
it will bring about the correct answer, you never know. You cannot know and when you have it in your
hand. You still can't let go off the fact that it is always going to be open to what is natural in the logic
process: criticism, the need to correct, the need to make sure that it is perfect, the need to lead with it. All
this is necessary for working in the logic process. The faith of the fifth line comes in here. You have to
trust every single step because it is never complete. It is part of that illogical process that lies here at the
beginning of this. There is no guarantee of logic. There is nothing but this quality of faith which logical
people, at their core, do not want to have to deal with. It is okay for a believer to say, "I believe that we
will have a cure for AIDS." That is very nice, but that is not the same as a logical person's attitude
towards the very same phenomenon because the logical person says that it is possible that a cure for AIDS
can be found. But we have to do our research and we have to check it out and do our experiments. The
perfect joke is: when you get to the sixth line here, the next hexagram is the fifth hexagram, first line, and
that is exactly where the 9 goes in the circuitry.
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HEXAGRAM 10 TREADING
We come to this place in which the Vessel gets poured out, the 10th gate. It is by far the most complex of
all the Vessel gates. It is a gate that provides the identity to the integration process. By the nature of their
mechanics, the integration gates are more complex. The 10th gate is preceded in the wheel by the 25.6.
Whatever
When we come to the 10th gate, we come to the gate of our nature. In that sense, we come to a gate of
being in the world. The most powerful conditioning gate is the 10th gate. It conditions the behavior of the
world through a very complex system, but the whole business of the 10th gate is the question that is
raised in the 25.6 which is how does one live life as an expression? How does one express innocence in
life? How does one express one's rhythm in life? How does one express the existential quality necessary
for being in the experience of life? All that is focused on the 10th gate because it is out of this gate that
the Vessel of Love is poured into each and every one of us, as an individual process.
We are all conditioned by this individual process of the 10th. gate. The 10th gate represents the possibility
to love oneself. In that possibility, the ground or the framework of loving oneself is to love being in the
world because the 10th gate is about living in the world. It is about being part of the life process.
Above the 10th gate in the black book, it says, The underlying code of behavior... Code here is a genetic
catch phrase, if you will. We have a code of behavior that is imprinted in us at a very early moment,
inside of us, in the structure of the form that we are going to be endowed with, something that we could
see when we were looking at the first 88 degrees of the sun. ...which ensures successful interaction
despite circumstances. Everything about behavior is what makes life easier. The moment that you are not
being yourself, life is automatically going to be more difficult for you. The more you are being yourself
the stronger your capacity for survival in this life, regardless of the circumstances. To be yourself is the
great success and when the 10 is connected to the 20, to be yourself is the opportunity to be awake: to be
awake in the now in the world.
This whole business about a code of behavior is something very important when you do analysis. You
have come to understand how the structure of a hexagram and the thematic or the keynotes associated
with each of the lines work, so you know that first lines are introspective and so on. What is important is
to recognize that every single line in its structure also has a code of behavior. In other words, each line
has its code of behavior which can be seen in the 10th gate. If you want to understand the nature of fourth
lines, look at the behavior of the 10.4, The Opportunist. Then you can see the opportunism built into all
fourth lines. That is the correct behavior: to wait for that opportunity, to wait for that moment in which
you are able to effectively externalize your influence. If you are a second line and everybody can look
inside of you, it means to be a hermit, to be careful about those who can penetrate into you and take you
away from your nature. In other words, in order to look at and to understand the nature of any given line,
you can also see that, not only do you have a keynote for its structure, but more than that, you have a
built-in reference in which you can see the code of behavior that bests suits that particular line. That code
of behavior for the lines is very important to keep in mind when you are doing somebody's chart.
Think of the nature of genetic continuity. In genetic continuity, we know that lines in similar positions in
the structure have a deep relationship to each other. From the basic teachings of Human Design, we know
that, as a global entity, we live inside of an emotional environment which is generated by all the solar
plex combinations. We know that out of the solar plex will come the ultimate recognition of the spirit of
humanity. Think about the nature of that Spirit in terms of how it functions in the world. The 22. 1 is
called Second class ticket. This is one of the things that human beings deeply feel at the foundation of
their nature, which is that somehow they are all given second class tickets; somehow they do not get the
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opportunity to belong or fit in to a place where they think they deserve to be. Think of that genetic
continuity as it applies to the 10.1.
10.1 Modesty
The line is called Modesty. I have a nickname for this line. I call this line the line of the chameleon. Do
not confuse it with Modesty in the 15, but understand that the nature of this line is that it asserts not an
ego, but its selflessness. In doing so, what is there is the overview: An innate sense to know and accept
one's place. Everything about being a human being is about being within a hierarchy. There are those
above. There are those below. There are those more successful and those less. It is always the way that it
is going to be. This is the nature of the world. The 10.1, the correct behavior, is simply to accept one's
place. That is all, nothing more, nothing less. I have had a real privilege in my life. I have Jupiter in the
10.1. I am comfortable and have been comfortable with princes and I am just as comfortable with freaks
and I have lived in all kinds of environments. Inherent in the 10.1 is the acceptance of one's place,
wherever that place happens to be.
The Sun exalted. A valued sense of purpose, no matter what the position. In the acceptance of one's place
is a sense of valued purpose. Everybody is looking for their purpose. The purpose lies in fulfilling your
behavior, in being yourself. All the themes of love are pointed at the same thing over and over again: to
be yourself, to accept what it is to be in the world and to accept that the world is both a hard and easy
place. Only then is there a sense of purpose.
The Moon in detriment. The affliction of over-sensitivity and hurt feelings. Everything about the self is
under risk from the outside. The self is always under risk from the outside. The self by its nature is
selfless. It is not ready to make any claims and yet, the moment that it is connected to the outside, the
outside pressures and conditions it to take responsibility for its nature.
Think about the 10.1 child. I have two of them so I know: the 10.1 is always acting correctly even if you
do not like it. Always. The moment that you try to tell them that they are not acting correctly, you deeply
offend them and they suffer from hurt feelings, of course, because inside of them, genetically, they know
(this is all about knowing) that their behavior is correct.
In the white book. The ability to know one's place and how to act despite circumstances. This is the
answer to having a second class ticket. So what? Sit in second class, so what? I get on airplanes across the
Atlantic Ocean and there are all those people in first class. I have a second class ticket. What to do? I will
not complain and whine that I don't have a first class ticket. I have a second class ticket. Sit in second
class. Accept your place. It is hard for human beings to just accept what the gods have dished out for
them. It is the only way. This is the correct behavior and it is the foundation of all behavior. It is the
foundation of the behavior that creates perfected form. It is the foundation of the behavior for the
perfection of conviction. It is the foundation of the behavior to be awake. Accept your place.
10.2 The Hermit
Here in the 10th gate you have a theme of behavior, a code of behavior for all second lines which is being
The Hermit. The overview says: The successful side-stepping of behavioral requirements... ('Behavioral
requirements' is conditioning.) ...through isolation. We have seen in our work together that all second
lines tend to suffer from the fact that they don't know that there is somebody who will burst in on them
and see them and try to condition them because they can see into them. The hermit is the correct behavior:
withdraw rather than accept conditioning away from what is your nature.
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Mercury exalted. Mental functions enrich aloneness. Mars in detriment. The angry exile. Whichever way
that comes out, it is better to withdraw than to accept the conditioning. To be the hermit is so important.
The other thing is: in the genetic continuity, as in the 12.2 Purification, The Hermit is somebody who has
to rigorously withdraw from negative forces. That is the role of the behavior of the hermit: it is not simply
to withdraw, but to withdraw from negative forces, not from all forces. Negative forces are those forces
that apply conditioning and try to change the nature of the hermit, to bring the hermit out of his isolation.
In the white book: Independent behavior through isolation, or Isolation to preserve independent behavior
in the face of conditioning. That is the most important aspect of it because that is the real key to all second
lines. The moment that somebody is trying to break in on your second line and condition you, withdraw.
It is better for you to withdraw and be in your own process because this is what is healthy and it is the
only way in which you are going to find love for yourself.
Think about that. What happens is that when people recognize you for something and they pull on you,
you tend to confuse that with love. It is not; nor should it be. That is, those people that can look into you
and try to pull you, they try to pull you by getting you to recognize your nature and turn it into something
motivated. They try to pump you up. This has nothing to do with the role of the hermit. The role of the
hermit is to avoid such conditioning in order to have an opportunity to be awake.
10.3 The Martyr
We come to the story of the third line which is about martyrs. Think about the nature of what the third
line is. It is always in a situation (lower trigram) in which it tries to get out of its process, only to be
confronted by the outside. In the moment of being confronted by the outside, it is being forced to adapt
because it was not prepared for what was there on the outside. In the nature of behavior, when you come
to the third line, you come to trial and error in the process of behavior. Now, remember that third lines
can lead to the sixth line of wisdom. That trial and error in behavior can be something that is of enormous
value to humanity, but, at the same time, it is a trial and error process. What may be discovered by living
out that trial and error is something else. It may turn out to be something that is of value.
The Martyr overview line: The futile rejection of standards based on a just awareness. Futile rejection: it
does not do any good to reject it. Here are human beings who, without choice, have a genetic code for
behavior and that code of behavior, because it is trial and error, will often be in conflict with the behavior
of those that surround it and meet it. No matter how much they live out their own nature, they are
constantly going to meet resistance from those around them. Of course, it is not easy for them to give up
that nature. It is, after all, what they are.
The Earth exalted. The martyr as an enduring example whose behavior is ultimately enshrined. When a
human being is living out their own nature, whether anybody likes it or not in the now, that has nothing to
do with whether or not it is truly of value. The 10th gate is individual and deeply related in that sense to
the first gate in the self, to its individuality. It speaks about this process of time, that as a creative process,
to have different behavior than other people is not something that is recognized in your own time
necessarily as a possible variation that others can follow. It simply may be seen as disruptive, anti-social,
freakish and a threat, most of all. After all, behavior is the most important conditioning we get. It can be
very threatening to have somebody whose behavior has impact on others and who becomes a role model
(sixth line).
The other thing is that, being individual, this is a behavior that can be mutative and can bring about
change and most of all, individuals and individual aspects are always seeking attention. Therefore, the
behavior of the 10 and the 10.3 is always getting attention: "You should not act like that, Johnny." "Stop
picking your nose, Johnny." He may do it for the rest of his life until somebody slaps him in the face,
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until his behavior so violates the standards or the norms that somebody resists it. Remember, all of these
gates of the self are always dependent on what they meet as beings on the other side.
The Moon in detriment. The martyr complex. The active pursuit of martyrdom for personal
aggrandizement. Here the ego is touched. These are people who make a living from their behavior. The
way these people act in the world attracts attention and because of that, they maintain that behavior in
order to continue to maintain that attention.
In the white book: Behavior that is ultimately challenged by others. I tell all 10.3's when someone
challenges them: "If it is your nature, martyr away because the more people resist you the better you
know that you are living yourself." So many of these people have very thin skins and they are so easily
upset by what other people say or comment on about the nature of their behavior.
Often their reaction is going to the other side: Behavior as a way to attract attention. "If you don't like my
behavior, watch me because I will not change it," and they use it to their advantage to attract attention.
They can, they do, and they will. Then you see the impact on the self of having other forces come and
impose on them and condition them.
I taught you about the 10th gate being a conditioning factor for humanity and how important it is for
humanity as a conditioning force, but that will give you a false impression. It is easier to generate the love
of humanity than it is to generate the love of self. It is easier to generate the love of the body than it is to
generate the love of self. It is easier to be one with universal love than it is to love oneself. The 46 always
has to live with the conditioning of the 29 and its commitment. The 25 always has to deal with the
conditioning of a willful ego. But the love of self, the behavior, gets conditioned in so many different
ways. It gets conditioned by the sacral in terms of whether or not it even has the power to follow its
convictions. It gets conditioned by the splenic system, an awareness that will condition the nature of the
behavior. It gets conditioned by being able to deal with conditioning forces placed on it from all kinds of
different directions.
Obviously, when I speak in this language, I am not talking about the nature of one's finished design.
Somebody like me who has the 10/20/57 but does not have the 34, the force that conditions my behavior
is always going to come out of the 34. Somebody who only has the 10 will be open to all three of these
conditioning forces. It is always dependent on the nature of somebody's design but understand the
difficulty. The difficulty is to maintain one's nature. The little martyr that keeps sticking their finger in
their nose, as disgusting as they may be to us, the more we try to beat that kid into not doing that, the
more we try to tell them that it is bad for them, the more we try to stop them in the now, we are not
benefiting them. What we are teaching them is to not let them be themselves. We are conditioning them to
see that their behavior is repellent and that because their behavior is repellent, so are they.
Now, it is not that I would like to have kids that stick their finger up their noses. I have been a teacher all
my life and have been teaching kids. It is not something that I would like to look at but, then again, who
am I to judge? All behavior, particularly in the first three lines, is under enormous pressure from society
because this is society's way of counteracting the natural conditioning capability of the 10th gate. They
condition it in return. To be oneself is the only way that you find self-love and there are so many forces
that try to keep you away from that.
When you have the 20 connected to the 10, you have a voice that says: "I am myself now." That voice is a
joke because it is a voice that can say "I am myself now," but it does not mean that what they are doing is
their self now or what they are processing is their self now.
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To be awake is simply about being yourself in the now and, regardless of what your behavior is, if you are
a martyr, you have to be a martyr in the now and if you are a martyr in the now, you are awake. If that is
your nature. If it is your nature to take the slings and arrows of everybody else's comments because they
do not like your particular behavior, it is your nature and the moment that you succumb to that, you fail in
this life. You will not love yourself. You will not be awake but asleep.
One of the things about the nature of life is that life for a human being must involve a deep level of non-
interference and recognition of the other. Everything about being awake is dependent on who is in your
life. After all, most human beings are not manifestors of their behavior in the now. Most human beings
are reliant on others in order to have that transpire. Most people who carry the 10th gate are not
manifestors in the now. Most of them require other people in order for them to come about. It comes back
to that very important standard that is established in the first line: to know and accept one's place means
that you know the place not only for yourself but for others.
You know who belongs in your place with you and you know whose place you belong in. This is about
knowing the other. Everything about love is dependent on knowing the other. I have never known so
much about myself. It is because I know so much about other human beings. It is out of this knowing that
I have learned so much about the nature of who I am and, out of that, who belongs in my life and who
does not.
This is what it is all about for all of us, this deep recognition that we are not alone, that we are always in
the aura of others and the auras of others are always conditioning us in one way or another. You have to
be clear about your nature. You have to be clear about what is there so that you can be healthy, so that
you can be of value to the totality and that you can enjoy being you in this life. So much of that is about
understanding people.
We are deeply misled in this life. That child with its behavior does not realize that it has a right to that
behavior because everybody is opposed to it. It is not nurtured in that sense. To nurture that, all you do is
that you do not interfere with it. You can educate. All anybody can do in this life is provide information,
provide data to the other.
I have learned as a teacher about the nature of what is called positive reinforcement. If you see something
awful in somebody, wait until you can see something that is not. If you have a child that is always making
mistakes, wait until they get it right. If you have a human being that is not themselves, don't take them
into your life until they are. That is positive reinforcement and that is one of the things that we all need
from each other and we can't get it until we get to a point where we understand each other. Understanding
each other is what it is all about.
With the information that you have in Human Design in terms of the nature of types, you have a way of
encouraging people to live out their own nature. I do not pay much attention to generators when they
initiate things with me. I expect manifestors to ask. My son is a generator so I make sure that I ask him to
do things rather than telling him to do things so that he has an opportunity to respond because that is his
nature. With the knowledge that you have and the people around you in your life, there are ways for you
to deal with these people: encourage them to be themselves and then you don't become part of the
problem by just mindlessly conditioning them even though you know better. This is very important.
One of the main tasks that we have in our process is that, by recognizing and being aware of the other, we
have to encourage them to be themselves. We have ways of doing that with the knowledge that we have.
The more people we have that are living out their nature, that are encouraged to live out their own nature,
the better and the healthier all of us are going to be and the better is the environment that all of us live in.
One of the things to recognize about having the knowledge of the other is that you can encourage them to
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be themselves, not by telling them what to do and how to act but by the very recognition of their nature,
by encouraging in the way you interact with them so that you don't become a conditioning force. You
become a healing force.
10.4 The Opportunist
Dealing with the upper trigram, we have a different process at work because the fourth and fifth lines are
rather gifted in the sense that they are going to recognize not only that there is one other source of
conditioning, but that they are going to come to grips with all three other sources. In other words, the
fourth and fifth lines of the 10th hexagram have deep transpersonal skills because they do have
recognition of the impact of the other.
The fourth line as a behavior is a code for all fourth lines for this one-tracked-ness, the fixedness. Its
behavioral code is The Opportunist. The acceptance of norms until a successful transformation can be
engendered. It is very important to understand that. The whole thing about the nature of the behavior in
the fourth line is that it has to wait for its opportunity, which means that it cannot give up behavior until
there is a place to go with that behavior.
My analogy for this is: if you have a job and you are a 10.4 and you want a new job, you cannot quit your
job until you have a new one. This is opportunism. You stay with the nature of your fixedness until there
is an opportunity or you wait simply for that opportunity to externalize your fixedness. Again, there is
always the possibility that the opportunist has enormous influence: to be able to wait for the right moment
to act can often lead to a great deal of good fortune or success.
We have this overview and so it takes time: the acceptance of norms until a successful transformation can
be engendered. Accept the nature of your behavior until the behavior can really change. Somebody who
has the 10.4 and is deeply conditioned and they come to Human Design. They are not going to be able to
change their nature. They will not be able to change their nature until that opportunity is really there for
them. That opportunity has to be there. For example, you are a generator and you are a 10.4. You cannot
just suddenly become a generator. You have to wait for that opportunity when somebody says to you,
"Excuse me, could you help me?" and you go, "Uh-huh." Then you can jump into that behavior: to wait
for the opportunity.
Uranus exalted. Transformation that is transcendence to a higher code. The whole thing about the
opportunist is that you are looking for the opportunity to externalize your nature and that is the highest
possible code. There is nothing higher.
Mercury in detriment. Opportunism as a game and/or mental exercise. Most of that is because the 10th
gate has no guarantee that it is going to have access to a motor in order to manifest. So often it is
speculating on those moments of opportunity when they may not arrive, or they are the kind of people
who think, "Here is a perfect opportunity to make a million dollars," but never do it because it is a game,
and because they do not have within themselves, within the nature of their design, the real opportunity to
live out that opportunism.
In the white book: The maintaining of behavioral patterns until the right moment and opportunity for
transformation. It is so important for 10.4's just to sit back and wait for that moment to live out their
nature. The other side: Altering one's behavioral patterns in order to take advantage of opportunities. It is
the same thing, just on the other side but it is also speculative. It is waiting for those opportunities and
they may not be ready to do that at that moment. Remember, not everybody who has the 10.4 is going to
be a manifestor or a generator. They may not have the opportunity to act it out and then it becomes
something game4ike or speculative.
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One of the really clear genetic continuities is between the 28.4 and the 10.4. The 28.4, as any fourth line,
is all about holding on. It is a holding on until the opportunity to take a risk: to hold on to what you have
got until you really have that opportunity to go beyond that.
It is so important to see that the 28.4 and the 10.4 are both deeply risk-oriented and the whole thing is that
one cannot afford to take that risk until one waits for the right moment. Any premature action in that
sense is going to lead to difficulties. So, the genetic continuity there is very important. This 28.4 is
holding on and usually for the betterment. In other words, if you hold on and wait for that opportunity, it
is always going to be more beneficial. If a 28.4 does not hold on, that does not mean that it fights for the
wrong things; it fights for the right things at the wrong time.
10.5 The Heretic
The 10.5 has enormous impact on society. After all, the 10 is part of Integration and Integration is the
backbone of being in the body, of being individuated. The 10.5 is where society projects onto behavior
and onto how it wants to see behavior. Society sees the behavior at its most interesting as being heretical.
It is society that sees if your behavior is unique and individual and it in fact may be dangerous to the
whole. All fifth lines are at one time exciting and at another time a threat to society because it is the
source of society's projections and, therefore, can be the source of society's disappointment if those
projections fail.
When you come to the fifth line, you come to The Heretic. As an overview line it says: Direct and overt
challenge to norms. One of the things to realize about the 10.5 is the need of society for a heretic, for a
behavior that will challenge the norms. It is society that creates The Heretic, that creates The General, that
creates all of these roles: The Savior, The Saint, all of these figures. It is society that creates it out of its
own needs and its owi4 projections. The heretic is created by society because they project onto the
behavior of the 10.5 that it is either very exciting or very threatening.
Jupiter exalted. The ability to succeed through the understanding and expression of higher principles.
Mars in detriment. The burning 0~ie stake. What exactly is the difference? There is a profound difference.
Remember that the fifth line is there to challenge the norms of society. In the white book: Principled
behavior which directly challenges tradition. This is not a challenge to the way an individual acts in the
world. This is not going up to somebody who has a rooster haircut and picking on them because they have
a rooster haircut. This is not dealing with tradition. This is just dealing with unusual behavior.
When you look at the other side, the Mars side: Behavior which directly challenges behavior and is
eventually punished. If you go up to the punk and say, "This is ridiculous, nobody should walk around
like this", don't be surprised if they rearrange your face.
The fact of the matter is that the heretic is at its greatest when they attack the framework of behavior that
has to be changed. Because the 10.5 is the vanguard of changing behavior, if they just attack the behavior
on the surface they are the ones that suffer. They get burned at the stake because it becomes very
personal. They are here to try to challenge the underlying tradition. If they do that, ultimately, they can be
regarded as a very special force in the world.
How they are going to react is again subject to the conditioning that they receive themselves. The 10.5
that has no fuel and no access to awareness or no access to manifestation is always going to be
conditioned by others. A 10.5 being conditioned by somebody else's awareness may end up attacking
somebody's behavior and being punished for it simply because they were conditioned that way, rather
than that being the most natural and healthy way for them. It is a very important line because, again,
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society has been calling for this. It is calling for a heretic that will challenge tradition and, in challenging
tradition, provide mutation for behavior.
Very interesting is the genetic continuity here, particularly because the genetic continuity as seen through
the mystical process is the relationship between the 10.5 and the 49.5. The 49th gate is a gate of being the
sacrificer and the sacrificed. It is the gate of emotional principles and the fifth line in its exalted form is
about providing practical provisions for revolutionary times, in the same way that the heretic really brings
something very practical when they deal with the tradition itself. That is what they are equipped to do: to
look at the tradition and to see whether or not a tradition deserves to stand or whether or not it is time for
mutation of behavior.
Practical provisions: in the detriment of the 49.5 you have the same Mars in detriment, which is all about
power. The moment that you make things personal is the moment that you get into a power trip with
people. For example, you say to them, "Your behavior stinks," and they return, "Your behavior stinks."
Nothing productive will come out of that. In order to change the behavior of society, what has to be dealt
with and challenged is the underlying tradition out of which that behavior has risen. Practical provisions;
otherwise expect to be sacrificed.
10.6 The Role Model
If you will look in this life for people that are the most self-conscious, you will find them in the 10.6.
They are constantly under pressure, constantly self-concerned about the nature of their behavior. Built
into them is the understanding that behavior can be hypocritical. They recognize that. The line is called
The Role Model.
A very powerful line: The perfect expression of the norms through action rather than words. They learn
their self-consciousness well with their harmony to the 20.3, Self-awareness, or through the 57.3,
Acuteness. They learn to recognize very quickly in their life that it is possible to say things but not
necessarily possible to live them out. They see that very early. They recognize within themselves that
their behavior is very important. But no matter how much they want to be able to behave perfectly, they
always run into obstacles because they end up being conditioned by the people around them that they are
dependent on. Even the words can only come out if there is a connection to the 20 and the awareness can
only guide it if there is a 57 and the energy is only there if there is a 34.
Remember that sixth lines look to the whole circuit, but the first thing a 10.6 looks at is Integration. It
says, "How can I maintain the holiness of myself. How can I guarantee my survival in the world? How
can I be me? How can I do what is right for me to do in the world?" All of that ends up being dependent
on so many other beings.
Pluto exalted. The constant example that refocuses the complacent on the basic integrity of set behavior.
They know how important behavior is. If you have a 10.6 parent, you will discover that, while they are
picking their nose, they tell you, "Don't pick yours: bad behavior." 10.6's recognize that correct behavior
is very important. What is frustrating is that, because they know that better than anybody else and because
so often they can't live it out, they would rather not be seen. They would rather sit on the roof and not be
anybody's example because, even though they can be hypocritical, they suffer a great deal from their own
hypocrisies.
The other side of this is Saturn in detriment. The hypocrite. Do as I say, not as I do. We have seen this as
a gift in all sixth lines: the 40.6 that sits on top of the house and looks to its family and says, "I see who is
messing things up here," and can easily point it out. The 10.6 has this deep capacity to point out to you
what is the correct behavior. By the way, I tell these people: go ahead. Tell other people how to behave. It
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is part of your gift and don't feel self-conscious because you yourself can't act the way you tell other
people to act. Everybody has to accept their limitation, whatever it happens to be. This 10.6 leads to the
20.6, to the line of wisdom. There is an enormous potential here to be awake to the beauty of self, but this
is not an easy process.
In the white book: The enduring value of expression of the Self through action rather than words. In the
end it all comes down to the same thing. It comes down to how you live in the world. The only action that
matters, whether it is action that you generate or manifest or whether it is action that is conditioned as
manifestation or generation in your life, it that you cannot be taken away from your nature. As long as
you are not taken away from your nature, you are an example for others. This is the great value of the
10th gate and, as an example for others, you are a source of wisdom for them in their lives.
Of all the sixth lines that we have looked at, none makes a more beautiful turn than the 10.6 because the
10.6 goes to the 58.1. It goes to The Joyous and it goes to the most beautiful line of the 384: the line of
Love of life. In the end, the 10.6 must find for itself love of life and the vitality that comes from loving
life. It is not the vitality that creates the love of life. It is the love of life that creabs the vitality. Th., 10.6
sits up there and knows the correct behavior but it also knows that that behavior is what brings about the
love - life and out of that love of life comes the power to correct the collective, comes the power to
establish new patterns, comes the power to release the example in the world. Good luck.
It always brings me back to where I started 1 1 years ago. When we go through this process of looking at
the G center, it brings me back to my own mantra: You are unique. You have no choice. Love yourself.
There is nothing else. There really is nothing else.
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HEXAGRAM 11 PEACE
Above the lines of the Rave I'Ching it says: A harmonic condition in the individual or society that permits
assessment before renewed action. Ideas generate the possibility for examination. They are not
necessarily something to act on.
This is in the channel of the searcher, the seeker, and it goes back to the pressure of the 47, Oppression,
which is all about trying to find a way to make sense out of what it is to be in the world. Here we have the
gate of ideas and the possibility: awareness to visualize a realization or not. This is visual memory of the
left eye.
Think about how the left eye works: it does not see everything. It sees just what is there in the wave. If
you are a left-eye person and you go on a vacation and you stay in a place with a beautiful view and you
love it very much, then you get home and somebody says to you, "What was it like?" When you describe
it, there will be many things left out.
There is a place in your wave and the part of what you saw that you really like is the part you hold on to.
Then somebody who knows the place says, "Wait a minute. Wasn't there a river that went through there?"
and you answer, "Oh yes, there was a river. Now I remember." It is in a wave. It is the awareness to
visualize a realization or not and the awareness possibility is visual memory, and this is the left eye.
The most important thing for people who have this gate is to recognize that these ideas, no matter what
the configuration is, are always for others. They are going to be most successful when they recognize that
because the moment they try to actualize their own ideas, they will end up with a lot of frustration and
crisis in their life.
11.1 Attunement
This line is the foundation. It is the line of introspection and it is called Attunement. This is a line that
resonates deeply through the abstract process. The serendipity of being in the right place at the right time.
This is a resonance to the 46th hexagram whose theme is to recognize that one is in the right place at the
right time. To be in the right place at the right time means that whatever idea you have is of value in the
moment that you have it. This is important for these people to understand.
The idea process is a gift. It is simply there. The ideas can always be there. Any idea at any given moment
has its value, but not for you. It has its value as another, idea, as another perspective on the process.
Moon exalted. The nourishment derived from being with those who share the same goals and aspirations.
One of the great concerns of all first lines is whether or not their nature is going to be accepted by the
other. Idea people are very concerned about whether anybody is going to have anything to do with their
ideas, which is why idea people can be so fervent. The beginning of a belief system lies here in this gate
in this line.
In the white book: The gift of finding those who will value your ideas. This is the whole thing about idea
people. They need to have others who say, "That is a great idea," whether that is a belief in something or
not. They are looking for others who will share the idea because they know that it is not a fact and they
know that it is not necessarily a truth. What they know is it is an idea. "Who else wants to go along for the
experience? Maybe there is a crisis, but misery likes company. Lets all do it together."
When you get to the other side you have: The sense that no one will value your ideas. This is the
foundation of what ideas are all about: an idea is only of value it you can share it with others. An idea is a
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painful thing when nobody values it. This is the whole thing about idea people. They are constantly
searching, not simply for a new idea, but they are searching for others who will share the idea with them.
When I discuss the mystical channels, I talk about the 40/37 which is a mystical bridge; it is not mystical
in itself. It is all about the search. It is all about curiosity. In many ways, it mirrors this collective channel
of the 1 1/56. The 1 1/56 is deeply social. The opiate of the masses. A belief system is intended to explode
out of a social environment where other people are there sharing the idea and saying, "Yes." As we well
know, ideas can be very dangerous in this way.
The lower trigram always has difficulty in terms of the other side. The lower trigram is more involved in
understanding the nature of its own process and yet, here in this channel, through this gate, there is this
enormous pressure to socialize because the ideas are of no value unless they are shared with others.
11.2 Rigor
The second line is a line of projection. This is the great line of boredom. Boredom is inherent in the idea
process and this line is a great line of boredom due to the fact that it is extremely difficult to get anybody
to pay attention to your ideas. You are projecting ideas out without the value of introspection. That is the
first thing.
This line is called Rigor. The recognition that without vigilance and risk, peace can lead to stagnation and
collapse. Neptune exalted. The imagination applied to ensuring the understanding of achieved values. It is
very important for these people to recognize that their ideas are much better kept within themselves
because then they can lead to the fruit that is very creative.
This is a very creative line; it has an enormous potential in terms of creativity. These are the bored artists.
They are even bored with their own art at times because it depends on who is there in their life to
recognize it with them. When they have a nice idea, the moment they try to project that out to others,
others are bored. "That is not my idea. Don't bore me with that." It is very difficult for them to project
their ideas out to others who say, "This is boring". It is much better for them to work with their ideas
within themselves as an imaginative process.
Mars in detriment. The resorting to factionalism to satisfy the ego's need for action. It is like sitting with a
group of friends and bringing out exactly the idea that will cause three of them to end up in a big
argument with each other while you sit back after throwing out the idea. Instead of them being bored, you
have to watch them getting all cranked up, so you end up being bored.
A sense of boredom overcome through the imagination; or Provoking with ideas to escape boredom. By
the way, the only time that they are not boring is when they are cranking other people up.
11.3 The Realist
Whenever you get to a third line of an abstract process, remember, it resonates deeply to the emotional
side. You are dealing with bonds made and broken. You are dealing with an emotional wave in which
contact is being made and broken and The Realist is about the nature of ideas itself.
The acknowledgement that peace is transitory. This is the nature of the format energy that runs a circuit. It
is called beginnings, middles and ends. Ideas are transitory. Pluto exalted. The internal renewal to
maintain strength and alertness. Venus in detriment. The tendency to appreciate harmony to the point of
delusion. The belief that beauty is eternal. Fiddling while Rome burns. What is so classic about third lines
is not only that they make bonds and break them, but they can be very irresponsible in all that. This is the
great irresponsible idea machine.
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The realization that ideas come and go. These are people where ideas are always coming and going and,
due to that, there is a part of them that will never take any of them seriously. They may produce
absolutely brilliant ideas. It is others that will take them seriously. They rarely take their own ideas
seriously because ideas come and go.
A pleasure in ideas that have no real application: Somebody who has an idea about flying to the alpha
century to talk to the booboos. This kind of idea does not mean anything. "W uldn't it be a great idea to
have a building that is 18 miles high?" These people love ideas that simply have no application
whatsoever. It is just for the beauty of what an idea is.
After all, we have an enormous privilege to have this kind of consciousness. The horror of this is when
we take all that stuff seriously. The moment you take ideas seriously, there will be crisis. In this
irresponsibility lies this enormous beauty of what the idea itself is. You do not have to do anything with
it. You don't have to have anybody agree with you. It is just the beauty of what an idea can be. It can be
infuriating to others, particularly when it is your parent. You have all these ideas and they say to you,
"You must do something with it." One day you have the idea to be a plastic surgeon on Mars and then you
end up being an agriculturist in Thailand because the idea changed. Ideas come and go. When you have a
lover with this line who tells you, "let's go on vacation tomorrow," don't pack.
11.4 The Teacher
When you get to the fourth line and the upper trigram, something very special happens here. After all, this
channel is intensely social and there is enormous frustration in the first three lines about not really being
successful at crossing the line to get to the point of stimulation in the 56th gate in order to find the
believers. In this line, we come to externalization and to this very fixed one-track process. Here it is very
fixed on a single idea and very fixed on its ability to look across and know how to stimulate.
There is a quality and a capacity here to stimulate. This line is called The Teacher. It is one of several
lines that have more than two planets fixing it and so it is unusual in that nature itself.
The ability to express the essential nature of peace. Remember that the tradition of the teacher has been
based on teaching the ignorant. They have to believe first. When you are teaching a child and it has no
real experience in the world, it cannot know or understand what you are teaching. It has to believe you
first until it finds out for itself. Most of us come to a point in our lives where, through teachers, we always
found disillusionment.
What we were asked to believe from the teachers in our lives, our parents or our formal teachers, in many
circumstances, we came to the point of disillusionment, that what we thought we were being taught was
of value, instead turned out to be an illusion. The reality is that it is the tradition of the teacher is to first
get them to believe. This is a very Piscean field and we are going through a process where this is
changing.
Moon exalted. The sage who in the extreme can teach harmony to the tone deaf. Venus is also exalted.
The ability to reach out and touch the alienated. Finally, the Sun in detriment. The guru whose most
valued wisdom is intentionally limited to a few.
In the Book of Letters, it is very clear: Concepts which are clear and transferable. Ideas that can attract
and inform the uneducated. These are great missionaries. All religious dogma is here. This is the gate of
white magic and these are the great exponents of white magic: narrow minded, locked in their own track
and, though they can be brilliant, they can also be very dangerous because they have the power to attract
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the other side. They have the power to get others to say, "I believe". This is one of most dogmatic of all
gates and this is the nature of white magic. If everybody believes, Tinkerbell won't die.
Ideas that can only be grasped by a few This is the nature of the guru in the sense that there are only some
who are capable of understanding. The best example is Einstein because he wrote this theory of relativity
in 1904 nearly a hundred years ago now and there are still maybe three of four thousand people on earth
who understand anything of it. This is information intentionally limited to a few. There are only some
people who are able to grasp it.
This is also the most dangerous of the gurus. These are the people that really attract a fringe and only that
fringe can understand that they are an reincarnation of Jesus Christ and the world is coming to an end and
"Let's die tomorrow while we take poison." This can be a line that is devastating in its power because it is
in this line that the capacity of the modern human mind awakened.
I taught many of you that we had a throat chakra mutation that took place 80,000 to 90,000 years ago.
That mutation took place in the 12.4. Exactly opposite that line in the zodiac is the 11.4. This opened up
the whole possibility of the mind and the possibility to begin the process of articulating ideas. This has
had enormous influence in the world ever since. Anybody who is born with either the Sun/Earth or the
nodes in the 11.4 has the 12.4 on the other side and this is the line of the prophet. This is a very powerful
opposition. It has caused as much pain as it has caused glory. That is its nature. "Believe in me and you
shall be redeemed."
11.5 The Philanthropist
When you come to the fifth line you, always come to the complete expression of the hexagram. You come
to a line of universalization. This gives you the best quality for the nature of this hexagram. It is called
The Philanthropist.
The motiveless nurturing of the disenfranchised to ensure harmony. Mercury in detriment. The
withdrawing from direct contact, where giving is a form of defense. The philanthropist is about giving
away your ideas. One side of this is philosophic and humanitarian ideas, ideas that may be of value to
others because the most important ideas are those that enable us to share the human experience and to be
a guide for others.
On the other side of this are often people who end up being philosophical writers. This is classic for the
philosopher: "Don't come near me personally but let me give you my ideas through a book or a movie."
That way of doing it is away from the individual contact. Whenever I see anybody who has this line, I
always give them a simple thing to think about: when somebody is bothering them, they can give them a
good idea. "Why don't you go out and play, Johnny?" Give them an idea and send them away. That is
what the defensive part is all about.
By the time you get to the fifth line, you realize that the whole nature of having the 11th gate is that how
the idea comes out is never up to you. It is always up to the other side because the 56 is manifesting it.
There is this sense of, "I can be very philanthropic. I have a wonderful idea for you." That can be
something that is very beneficial or it can be something that is very protective.
11.6 Adaptability
When you come to the sixth line, you come to the roof of the house. You come to transition and this line
speaks of transition. It is called Adaptability. The inner balance to accept transition.
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Neptune exalted. The innate awareness that all forms are transitory. This is the resonance to the third line,
The Realist. The Realist begins this process and recognizes that ideas come and go. This is more than
that. It is the expression of ideas. After all, the sixth line goes far beyond what is there in the channel. It
goes to the whole experience of the circuit. It is looking beyond that to the nature of life itself. What it is
looking at is 'the innate awareness that all forms are transitory'.
Jupiter in detriment. Adaptability in its most negative manifestation. The speculator who profits at the
expense of others in times of peace or war. The greatest difficulty for idea people is to live out their own
ideas. The sixth line people have a sense for what the whole process is about. They can see when the
crisis is coming. They can see where the beginning of something is. They can be very lucky in the stock
market. They can see when something is coming to an end and they can be very lucky in terms of getting
in and out of things.
Something lies within them that allows them to take the moment and capture it and to be able to profit
from their idea in that moment. But their idea is not about manifesting in the throat. That idea is far
beyond that. It is seeing how something operates throughout the whole collective process and being able
to catch it and take advantage of it. They realize that any old idea won't do that. Ideas come and go and
they are changeable.
The realization that ideas lead to change and are changeable; or The realization of what idea is of value in
any situation. It is the situation that these people look at, not the manifestation; it is the whole situation.
They are tuning into that whole possibility. What is actually going on there and what idea can really work
in that? Many people will take offense at these people, obviously. They always take advantage in certain
situations with an idea, and ideas are not truths. Due to that, other people can see themselves as being
taken advantage of. That is always the dichotomy that exists.
The sixth line is going towards the 10.1, which is all about behavior. That is why what it is looking for
over the roof is how everybody acts. Out of seeing the way in which the world behaves, they get their
ideas of how they can take advantage of that behavior.
I don't mean to make that negative. That is not moralistic. Please understand me. It is simply that they
take advantage for their own benefit. All those ideas are supposed to be for others. In the detriment the
idea is really for you. By the way, you ask these people, for example, "How did you know when to step
out of the stock market. How did you get this idea?" They cannot really tell you. They tell you something
that does not really sound related at all to the question. They simply tell you, "Well, women's' dresses are
shorter this year." Whether you consider that answer as their real idea or as something that just flashes
into their mind makes no difference.
After all, we have no choice in what we say anyway. The speculator is born with this gift and has the
experience. The people who have the gift end up in situations surrounded by people who do not have the
gift. They follow their trends. The world is filled with people who try to figure out how Mr. Buffet made
his 16 billion dollars. When you hear him talk about it, it is a joke. These people have the gift of
comparison. They wouldn't tell their mother if they knew what stock to buy because they would be afraid
that their mother would tell their friend and ruin the whole thing.
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HEXAGRAM 12 STANDSTILL
The 12th gate is the only social channel for the individual process and, as such, the only way in which the
individual mutation can go out into the world. This gate opens up to the solar plex center, so it is under
the same pressure as the 35. It is under the pressure of the solar plex wave. Everything having to do with
the 12th gate has to do with the nature of its voice which says, "I know I can try if I am in the mood."
This is the whole key to the 12.
Above the lines it says: The quality of restraint and the importance of meditation and inaction in
confronting temptation. The 12 has to be restrained until it is in the mood. This gate is a stop. "I am not in
a hurry here. I'll wait until I am in the mood." This is the key to everything that I will describe about the
nature of the 12th gate and how it operates.
12.1 The Monk
The first line speaks for a hexagram and this first line is called The Monk. This gate is not called
Standstill for nothing: this is about the monk. This is about being isolated. It is one of the three gates of
aloneness and is about waiting and being contemplative. It is about restraint until one is in the mood, then
it is the right time.
Withdrawal that can only be maintained with communal support. Venus exalted. The beauty and harmony
possible beyond the reach of temptation. The temptation lies in the solar plex center and in actually
committing oneself to trying to explain oneself. Remember, the 12th gate is part of individuality. It is a
knowing gate and every time that it makes a social contact, it has to be able to explain itself. If you are
away from the social power of the solar plex center, you never have to explain yourself. That can be very
peaceful. During that time, one can go through that process, allow the time for mutation to take place and
wait for that moment of mood so that it can be externalized.
In the detriment you have: Simon the Stylite,... These were people in the late Greco-Roman times in the
Middle East whose religious practice was to climb up on these very tall pillars and sit up there by
themselves. This is about ...total and often absurd withdrawal.
In the white book: The expression of social withdrawal and its value when supported by others. In other
words, if you are a 12 and somebody says, "Do you want to come and see me now? We have friends in
the house," and you say, "I am not in the mood," they have to be able to accept that that is your nature so
that at some further date, you'll be invited again. That is the need for communal support, in that sense.
The other side: The absurd expression of social caution and extreme withdrawal from emotional contact.
All of this is about bringing mutation. If you are not in the mood, you can't bring mutation. This is the
intrinsic lesson of the 12. By the way, you will not be in the mood unless you have a mutation to bring.
That is true as well. Mutation for an individual, at its simplest level, is the moment that you can explain
an aspect of your knowing that has a mutative value.
The moment that you can explain your knowing and you are in the mood, that is your opportunity to
mutate others and bring them to a new knowing. That is part of how the process works. If somebody has
the detriment of the 12.1 in an undefined throat, they may have extreme difficulty in being able to speak.
This is a gate of articulation and the 12.1 people with the detriment in an undefined throat can even be
mute, or they go through long periods in their life where they do not speak.
12.2 Purification
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When you come to the second line, you come to projection. What is being projected out here is restraint
that says, "leave me alone. I may not be in the mood, so why bother coming near me?" This line is called
Purification. Rigorous withdrawal from negative influences. 'Negative' means from solar plex energy,
before one is clear. "I know I can try, if I am in the mood." You can only get to the "I know I can try"
when you can explain your knowing. That is the moment that the mutative capacity is there.
Saturn exalted. The discipline to maintain a pure state. These are people who really are isolated human
beings. They are always projecting out that they are not interested. They always project out that they do
not want to have contact with the social aspect at the other end. Of course, they don't know that. This is
about social mutation. It is a social channel. Remember, they are a second line so they do not really know
what is underneath and how much they may get out of that moment of contact.
Mercury in detriment. The boredom that arises out of lack of stimulation. Think about what these people
are like. These people are restrained but they don't know why. Somebody says to them, "Why don't you
come out tonight?" and they answer that they are not in the mood but they don't know if they are really
not in the mood. They don't really know why they do not want to go out. They just say, "I am not in the
mood." That is what they can put out all the time as a protective vibration. "I am not in the mood. I am not
ready. I don't want to." But they do not really know why. They can get very confused by that.
In the white book: The expression of disciplined social caution; or Caution that manifests boredom and
the expressed desire for stimulus. These people constantly say, "No", but then they get very bored. We are
dealing with a social channel here. There is a part of them that says, "Yes, but what am I going to do? I
keep on going like this. There is nobody here." There is this sense of boredom that builds up underneath
because they are not working on the mutative process.
They are not coming up with their explanation for their knowing. That is the only moment that the 12 is
free. It is a gate of articulation, literally, to be able to express the mutation. That means that you really
have to be able to explain yourself, to bring it out into a social context. I am a classic 12.1. 1 have both my
conscious and unconscious Uranus there. I did not go out into the world with the Human Design System
until I was very clear about it. I lived like a monk, totally isolated, and the community supported it. These
are classic patterns that go on all the time.
12.3 Confession
When we get to the third line of the 12th hexagram, we get to people who can be very deeply disturbed.
Due to this bonds being made and broken, it is impossible for them to be always still. They are constantly
stepping into the emotional energy of the solar plex center and, the moment that is connected, they go
through this process of trial and error. This line generates hatred. These are people that hate or are hated
and, mostly, the hatred in them is self-hatred. They end up hating themselves. This can be a very brutal
line, a lot like The Martyr in the 10.3, which is part of the same individual process. These people can
really be burned at the stake emotionally, which is another kind of scaring and burning.
It is called Confession. The process of self-analysis. Neptune exalted. Whenever you see Neptune exalted,
you know that you have quite a process to cut through all that murk, that it is not a clear process. The
recognition of inadequacies and the purging of unjustified vanities. Every time this person makes contact,
it is necessary for them to explain themselves. Remember that an individual has no business being social
unless they can explain themselves. If they can't, they will get into a lot of trouble socially because, not
only will they be rejected, but they will have to deal with the wave on the other side. What happens to
these people is that they put that energy out and then they discover their inadequacies and they begin an
adaptive process of learning. After all, if these people get through this process in a relatively healthy way,
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they have an enormous knowing within them about what really works and when they can bring out this
quality of knowing within themselves.
Mars in detriment. A perverse and often exaggerated self-hatred. I have met a lot of 12.3's who are so
heavy on themselves. If you are a person like that, that is okay, but if you identify with being heavy on
yourself, this is a tragedy. It takes years, 40 to 50 years, to go through all of this trial and error and to get
to the point where you really can put across that explanation socially as a stranger and bring your
mutation to others.
In the white book: The expression of inadequacies in social interaction that leads to self-analysis and
caution; or Inadequacies in social interaction that leads to the expression of self-hatred. You can't cure
these people of their selfhated. It is not like you can say to them, "Now look, you have the 12.3 in
detriment and it is a mechanic for your hating yourself, but do not take it seriously." That is very difficult
to do.
The thing for them to recognize about the nature of that is that there is a conditioning factor in this line in
the black book: A perverse and often exaggerated self-hatred. This means not always. It does not say
'always' which means that it is not fixed. This is the only thing that can work for them, to see out of that
self -hatred that their failure of social interaction is not about them being inadequate. It is about them not
having contact with the right forces. Again, it is a third line. It is not transpersonal. It really does not
understand the emotional system on the other side and can only learn through experience, and usually
painful experience.
12.4 The Prophet
When you get to the upper trigram, you get to the externalization of our mutative process. Here in the
12.4, humanity had a mutation take place in the larynx 80 to 90,000 years ago that allowed us to begin to
articulate in what we call language. The 12.4 is called The Prophet. The externalization is the ability to
recognize (this is a transpersonal line) the emotional field on the other side, to be able to deal with the
emotional field on the other side, in order to be able to get the mutation across.
The ability to foresee and plan for the end of standstill. They are people that have the ability to foresee.
They have been waiting all along and have the capacity inside of them to know exactly when the mood is
right and to know exactly when they have the capacity to explain themselves. After all, what good are
prophets when they cannot explain themselves?
Earth exalted. The rousing of the stagnant for communal preparation. In the white book: The ability to
foresee and express the need for social interaction and an end to caution. It is time to get the word out. It
is time to get this mutation going because, without the emotional energy, it is not going to happen.
On the other side, Mercury in detriment. The voice in the wilderness. In the 12.1, we have people that can
have extreme difficulties in articulation and they can even be mute. In the fourth line, you have people
with speech impediments. You have people who have difficulty in the way they articulate. 'The voice in
the wilderness': it may be very hard for these people to speak. These are people that can stutter. These are
people that can go through all kinds of difficulties in terms of articulation.
The expressed need for social interaction that falls on deaf ears. It is very hard for these people to get their
message across. Everything about the externalization process is about opportunity. Prophets show up
exactly at the right time: when people are ready to hear their word. Otherwise, it does not work. This is
about being totally fixed on that moment, waiting for that moment to be able to externalize one's
explanation, one's mutation, and to try to bring about some kind of social transformation.
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12.5 The Pragmatist
When you get to the fifth line, you have this wonderful word here: Pragmatist. This is the beauty of the
fifth line. This is how the whole gate is projected on. It is projected on all 12th gate people that they are
pragmatic, that they are cautious and that they are careful. This is what the outside sees.
The success of restraint lies in not abandoning the lessons learnt when the phase ends. This immediately
tells you something about this line: it is not like the second line. It really knows what is on the other, side
and that the emotional energy comes and goes. It knows that each time that the energy is there, there is a
period afterwards in which they are going to be alone and they stand still and they go through their
process but they also know: that experience of the emotional system is coining again and they are ready
for that.
It is also projected onto these people that they are much more social than they are. Jiirgen is a classic
example with the 12.5 and 22.5, a resonance in this channel. It is always projected on him that he is very
social and accessible, but I know him very well. I know that when you hook into that, it will come out,
but it is not necessarily the case.
This is a projected field that people put onto others. What is so important about this fifth line is that,
because they always get this social projection placed on them, they get a lot of experience. If they are
clear each time about the nature of that experience, they finally are people who have very special social
skills because they know when to be in the mood and how to interact when they are in the mood.
Sun exalted. Light is always conscious of darkness. Mars in detriment. The tendency to remember only
the most painful lessons learnt. This side of that energy can be, "Yes, I learned a lot about this social
interaction but there is a lot in it that I don't really like." They get to see that the social mechanism of the
individual is not always pleasant, even if you can explain yourself. There are forces that are not worth
dealing with.
In the white book: Caution as an expression of social experience; or Caution which is conditioned by the
most painful social experiences. One of the things about fifth lines is that if you really get to them, they
remember the most painful lesson. They remember that type of hook and then they are able to say no and
be very cautious out of that experience because it was painful. It does not mean that it was harmful to
them or bad. It is simply that they will always remember what did not work and they will not get involved
with that again because they are by their very nature cautious, regardless of how social they are.
12.6 Metamorphosis
Here we have a very extraordinary sixth line. The next great mutation that will take place in humanity
will take place in this stream that runs all the way down to the 39. The mutation will actually take place in
the 55.6 and will eventually find its manifestation in the expression through the 12.6. This will be the
mutation that opens up what the Voice referred to as our Spirit Consciousness. That is the consciousness
that is possible underneath the emotional motor. This line is called Metamorphosis. Faith in, and energy
applied towards change and emergence from standstill.
Sun exalted. Creative transcendence that, when connected to the harmonic gate 22 through the channel of
Openness, leads to successful mutation and the emergence of a new social form; or A retrograde
metamorphosis that has evolved a perfected adaptation to standstill. This is typical of the sixth line. Here
you have the potential for real mutation, the mutation of the social form itself. This mutation has not come
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yet. We have minor mutations of the social form, but the real major mutation has not come yet. This sixth
line is always waiting for this mutation.
Not only are they less likely to be social, they are less likely to be cautious. They don't care about either
of those things. What they really care about is what is the mutation and what will it do? The next gate is
the 15, which is the love of humanity and it is on the path to leadership. What can it do for humanity? Is
this social mutation going to be of value to the totality? This is so important to all sixth lines. They have
to see that something can really be It'.
The capacity to mutate and express new social forms. This is always inherent in the 12.6. It means that if
you have that kind of energy, it is always possible for you, through your explanation, to bring a real
change in the way in which people deal with each other. In bringing out this mutative energy, this is what
slowly begins to change everything. Without mutation, there is no real change.
When you come to the other side: The perfected adaptation to caution that can accept social limitations.
These are people that will just stand back forever and say, "That is the way it is and nothing is going to
change that. Why should I get involved? Why should I go through all the pain of dealing with their
emotional wave to try to get them to a point where they can really be clear about what I am explaining to
them? It is just not worth it because they are too confused and we will never get this thing to work out."
Whereas the exalted of the 12.6 recognizes deep inside that it has a genetic capacity to change the
emotional system, this line will truly be a metamorphic line in the moment that the solar plex center starts
its actual mutative change. All of that will be expressed through this stream. But, like all sixth lines, you
have to recognize that the nature of that is to be an example for others. The deepest thing that lies within
the individual is, "Whatever I am presenting as an explanation, it has to be a valid example for others or
they are going to stone me, or they will see me as a hypocrite if they can't understand it. Then they will
think that I am not telling them something that is valid or true." The 12.6 is deeply cautious but at the
same time, there is magic in it because it can bring deep mutation to humanity.
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HEXAGRAM 13 THE FELLOWSHIP OF MAN
We come to the collective process, to one of the role gates. It is different from the individual process,
which is about the individual direction, about being the direction. The perspective that we have in the role
of individuality is the perspective of being able to release the role in the now, of just being able to get the
creative process out.
When you come into the collective roles, you come to something different. The logical collective role will
project into the future and the abstract collective role will always looks backwards into the past. It is here
that the collective gets to establish where it has been and where it is going which gives it its sense of
continuity and its sense of well-being. After all, everything about how we stabilize our existence is, in
essence, about the collective field.
We come to the 13th hexagram, The Fellowship of Man, which is of extreme importance to the nature of
what it is to be human. That is, the abstract circuitry represents our experiential way which is literally the
way of being human. This way begins with the 41st hexagram, the initiating codon, the beginning of
experience, and gets completed in this channel 33/13 of the witness and The Prodigal. It is something to
understand about the nature of any abstract process: nothing is really learned until the process is really
over.
It is one of the keys to being in the abstract (you will see that particularly in the Vessel of Love, in the
46): to be in the experience because, unless one is totally absorbed within the experience, one does not
accrue enough information for a proper reflection later. If you are not always looking in the rear view
mirror, you are bound to miss certain things that you have passed.
The 13 l gate is the gate of the listener, but more important than that, it is a gate of secrets because it
collects the reflections of the past. This is one of the many gates within the rave system that is specifically
associated with memory. Above the lines in the hexagram it says: Universal ideas and values in an
ordered framework which inspires humanistic cooperation.
'Universal ideas and values in an ordered framework..." This is the whole process of collecting the past.
The time is the continuity or, in the case of the passenger driving in the car, the distance is the continuity.
We do that with calendars. We have a big date coming up: 2000. It gives us this sense of continuity and
we can all look back 1000 years and can say, "Well, we have completed this continuity."
...which inspires humanistic cooperation. That is, it is this continuity and the collection of history that
inspires humanity. It is true. It inspires humanity in the sense that, unlike our mammalian cousins, we
don't have to start over every generation. Human beings have this capacity to be able to store memory and
then to be able to exchange it, to share it within in the nature of the collective process.
This sharing of history is indeed inspiring to humanity. It is a much faster process today, for example,
than it was 100 years ago. Our collection system is faster, our dispersion system is faster and the faster we
get, the more advanced each generation is from the one before it because it gets to learn essential
information that has been learned by the previous generation. And it gets to learn it right away when it
comes into the world. This is the advantage of the 13th gate: to store our experience in order to inspire
humanity with it.
13.1 Empathy
"The ability to relate and commune with everyone with equanimity" is something that you learn in the
lifetime and not something that you learn right away. All first lines give you a key. The key in this
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hexagram is about the empathic process. The line is called Empathy and it is an overview line, which
means that The lower trigram does not know that there is anyone to listen to and everything they hear is
sort of by accident. In other words, they really get secrets in a way. They hear things that they did not
even realize they were supposed to hear or could hear and suddenly they have access to it.
Venus exalted. "Harmony through affection. A role of openness in listening to others with affection. "
The 13th gate is the role of the self in its openness for interaction with others, in its ability to be receptive
to others and because this is a gate that collects history, it collects people's stories. It is by its very nature
an empathic gate. It is always pulling people to it in that sense.
In the white book, we have this Venusian Role of openness in listening to others with affection. This is
one of the foundations of getting secrets out of people. For example, in crime movies where you have the
good cops and the bad ones. The good one is so sweet that he always gets the story. This is empathic
listening with affection.
The Moon in detriment. The politician kissing babies. An openness that is never free of motives. " This is
superficial affection, but at the same time, the politician that is ready to go out and to kiss the babies is
empathic enough to hear the stories of the parents.
In the white book: An openness that is never free of motives. It is very important to see that motive is
going to be a part of the 13th gate process because the 13 is burdened by other people. The lower trigram
always feels the burden the greatest. They say, "Why do people bother me? I have to listen to them."
There is a genuine affection built into this gate where it does tend to listen for the sake of soothing the
other rather than for what it thinks it is going to hear or for the value of what it is going to hear is. It is just
collecting in that sense.
13.2 Bigotry
One of the things you must have noticed in your work with Human Design is that second lines have funny
names and they are often deeply misunderstood, like the 58.2, Perversion, the 46.2, Prima donna, the
18.2, Terminal disease, or Degeneracy in the 48.2. Second lines have strong names and people are always
very concerned about them, mostly because they simply cannot understand how the line actually works.
Realize what a second line is: that other people are seeing you as that aspect; they are looking inside of
you and see you. Think about what happens to the 13.2. Everybody who steps into the aura of a 13.2
assumes that they are going to listen to them empathetically. They just assume it. The 13.2 is minding its
own business, not listening and not needing to hear anything in particular. All of a sudden, there is
somebody stepping into its aura and telling it things and the 13.2 is quite surprised. What happens to the
13.2 (think about lines as children) is that they end up listening to all kinds of different voices they have
no control over and they end up being quite frankly disgusted by it. They hear that people have a lot of
crap to say.
Remember that the 13 is really here to distinguish the values and ideals that we have experienced in order
to inspire humanity. Here is the 13.2 being forced to listen to all kinds of different people. Do not
misunderstand that line of Bigotry. A 13.2 gets all these people in their life telling them things that they
did not ask for in the first place. Yes, they end up being quite discriminatory. The risk, always present,
that fellowship can only exist for a particular type, whether racial, religious, national or intellectual.
Moon exalted. Tolerance as the least offensive manifestation of bigotry. In the white book: A role of
openness through tolerance. This is not a dirty word. The fact of the matter is that the 13.2 that has the
exalted still has to suffer many fools in their lives and they wonder, "Why am I listening to all this stuff?"
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In the detriment: The obsessive belief that the highest ideals cannot be embraced by the lowest forms. An
extremely difficult position, where even the highest ideals provide rationalization for hatred. It is not
difficult, given the experience of what it is to be human, to find things to dislike about human beings. We
know that. We find things to dislike about the people that we love the most. After all, we are very good at
finding things that we dislike about other human beings. It is quite a common thing.
The detriment in the white book: A role of openness so narrow that there is practically no one worth
listening to. They may in fact go deaf and will not listen to any of it because "They are all fools and they
are just bothering me." That does not preclude that they will get to hear what they have to. Remember,
this is deeply social. We are talking about the collective gate which is by its very nature social. This
collection of history is a social phenomenon that we used to have as oral history when the shaman of the
tribe tells the story of their fathers and grandfathers. Thus, a tradition of knowledge is built based on the
communication of experience. 13.2's can end up being quite bitter about the nature of what humanity
really is. Don't blame them for being the bigots.
There is a risk that is referred to in the introduction line that refers to there being a risk for humanity if
this would dominate in the world. It is part of what we have in the world a lot of prejudice. Prejudice can
be positive or negative. You can have a 13.2 that has a relatively clean psyche and their prejudice is
something that they learn to deal with because they learn to see that human beings just don't have always
something worthwhile to contribute. On the other hand, you have all kinds of people that will take the
13.2 and turn that into a reason to dislike the other. So it is a risk for humanity.
There is this moment for a 13.2 where, all of sudden, people that you never expected to have something
important to say, do so. Usually children do that to them. That awakens the possibility that you can
actually hear something worthwhile from the unexpected. Kids can say something very profound and it
just changes the 13.2.
By the way, the answer for all second lines is rooted in the individual process in the 10.2, where it says,
'Be a hermit,' and in the 12.2, where it says, 'Purify yourself from all negative forces.' You have to be very
careful with any second line that you let into your aura because they can penetrate you so easily and see
that aspect in your nature.
13.3 Pessimism
The third line, because it is an adaptive line and because it is trial and error, you will have trial and error
in who you listen to. It is not the uncontrolled process that happens to the second line. This is a process of
tuning in through trial and error who you listen to, who you take in to hear. You can see that in the line
called Pessimism, which is an overview line, that it is a lifelong process.
The belief that what is best can never be achieved. This is something that the third line learns as a curve in
life. This is its learning process. What happens to it is that the moment that it is listening to a certain type,
it gets what it does not want to hear. It gets to see in that human being what it does not want. It tries to
listen to another type. It goes through quite a process of disappointment in life about the nature of what a
human being is.
The Earth exalted. A lack of trust that can only be transformed through concrete evidence. This is a
possibility for mutation in the abstract process: to make sense out of the past. It helps to have evidence
rather than just speculation. 13.3's become very suspicious of people. They become deeply mistrusting of
them and they are the kind of people that know a kind of storyline being delivered to them. They are very
good at hearing the propaganda, the lie.
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In the white book: Openness that is conditioned by suspicion and seeks evidence. In America, they have
this wonderful expression: 'the Man from Missouri' who says, "Show me." It is always this hand out.
"Show me. Put it here in my hand. Let me see exactly what it is."
Venus in detriment. Pessimism exalted to an art form... The one thing about realizing that human beings
don't live up to the ideal is that they are also humorous in the way that they do not live up to the ideal.
One can call that black humor but it can become art. It can become satire. In other words, rather than
trying to inspire humanity with history and facts, which can be quite brutal (who can read the historic
record of the last century and not be astounded at how barbaric human beings can be?), this is satire. The
satire can have the same effect. It can inspire humanity.
My favorite 13.3 story is about the famous Irish writer, Jonathan Swift, a member of the English
parliament, who was born the beginning of the 18th century. He is the author of 'Gulliver's Travels'.
During that time, the English and the Irish had trouble with each other so he wrote a satire: 'Modest
Proposal'. What he proposed, in order to make everybody happy, was that the Irish should sell their babies
to the English for food. He talked about how wonderful that would be. There would not be so many Irish
babies, so this would not be a problem. People would have enough to eat and babies are really delicious
and he gave recipes for cooking them. He described how the English would love to eat these fresh babies
and there would not be these supply problems. It was satire. It was meant to humiliate the English. The
fact is that the satire was actually taken seriously by some people, which is really quite astonishing. The
impact of pessimism as art is that it humiliates us to the point that we laugh at ourselves and, perhaps, that
has some impact on our direction.
Because the 13th gate is a gate of secrets, every time the lower trigram gets access to the throat, what
pops out is something that the 13th gate is unprepared for because it is not consciously holding onto what
it is listening to in that gate. The 13th is a gate where memory is stored. How that memory pops out is
dependent on the 33 that steps into its aura, or on whatever way it gets that information out. Often that
satire can be cruel and bitter and, sometimes, 13.3s can say things to people that are just devastating,
which is actually their form of satire but can be taken as something that is bitterly cruel.
13.4 Fatigue
With the fourth line we come to the recognition that there is an opportunity as a possibility for expression
out of the throat. Because of that, the fourth and fifth lines, in particular, have a different process that they
have to deal with. Third lines are inherently weak. It is a weakness simply in the sense that third lines
always have to adapt, always have to go through trial and error and mistakes. In that sense, it is an
inherent weakness. But when you come to the abstract process, you will find that the real weakness in this
process is in the fourth line and not in the third. You can smell the weakness of the abstract process in the
30.4, Burnout. Here, we have a very similar fourth line to the 30.4. This line is called Fatigue.
Think about what happens: the 13th gate is there to listen. The lower trigram only listens when it is
broken in on because it does not look for it. It does not know that the possibility is out there that someone
will tell it something. But the fourth line knows that and it goes out there to listen. It is ready to listen and
because of that, it does not get to do the most important thing, which is that after listening comes the
reflection. It just keeps on listening. This is somebody who decides that they will write a great book about
the experiences of people in Sarajevo during the civil war. What they end up doing is recording people
endlessly. They never write their book. They are totally burned out by the process of just going through
listening. Fatigue.
Overview line: The point of exhaustion eventually reached when one is too tired to fight. This will have a
deep significance, depending on the nature of the design and type. If you have an energy type, they will
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listen longer than those who are not. The energy and the non-energy type, though both will still reach the
same point of exhaustion, they will reach it at different times in their lives.
Pluto exalted. This is the only line in the 13 that is Pluto-related and this is a generation that was born in
the 1940's or 1950's. The renaissance that comes with truce and its eventual reinvigoration. In other
words, this is the moment where you stop the listening. They finally learn to stop listening. They have
heard enough. They do not need to hear anymore.
Openness which leads to exhaustion and the need for silence. You can interpret the silence as a need for
reflection afterwards. There must be this space; otherwise, it does not work.
On the other side of this fourth line, we have Venus in detriment. Emotional exhaustion. Appeasement
and withdrawal. Regarding the emotional context that is given here, the abstract process is deeply related
to the solar plex system. Our human experience is conditioned by the solar plex. The desire in life, the
desire to be alive, the desire for life, is all rooted in the emotional system. Those people who are 13's end
up taking in an enormous amount of emotional energy in their life. Somebody goes down in their
emotional wave, seeks out the 13 to unburden themselves and the 13 ends up taking it all in. You find that
13's with undefined emotional systems end up being very sick, whereas 13's with a defined emotional
system can survive it because they generate their own wave.
The detriment in the white book: A role where openness is a vulnerability. Think about the irony here.
Fourth lines are normally very influential because they are one-tracked and focused and because they do
have the gift of externalizing. But here, it is detriment. Here, the fact that one can externalize the listening
also means that, in their fixedness, they don't know how to stop listening. Only when they get to the point
of exhaustion do they stop. These are people that end up working as social therapists of some kind and
they build their schedule so that they have people talk to them all day long, every day. After three or four
months they collapse; they get very sick, take three weeks off to recuperate because they are very ill, and
then they go back into exactly the same program because they do not know how to stop listening unless
they are exhausted.
One of my favorite stories about the 13's in my life. I have the 33.6. I originally had a publisher who
wanted to bring out the Human Design system in English and German. He told me he knew a very good
translator and that he would get in touch with him. I was living in Bavaria at that time and the publisher
told me that the translator was nearby. The first time I was given Jiirgen's name, I asked for his data
because I wanted to see his chart. Jiirgen has the 13.2 and the 13.5. 1 said: "A bigot savior. That is perfect
for Human Design. "
13.5 The Savior
Everybody projects on the 13.5 that they will listen. That is not necessarily true. They may not be willing
to listen to others. However, this is a projected field and the fact is that we, society as a whole, consider
listeners to be our saviors. That is very important to understand. What that reveals is just an intrinsic
quality of what it is to be human. We are here to share with each other the nature of what it is to be in the
world. That is why here in this fifth line, in this gate, we have such a name. We give great spiritual value
to such a name. It is our salvation that we have the gift of being able to share with each other and in that
way, to be able to inspire new generations with what we have been able to achieve in our experience. As
an advantage, we make it a lot easier for them. So, 13.5's can be honored in this life. They can also be
deeply burdened.
The Savior. The ability to overcome all obstacles for the betterment of humanity. The fact is that 13.5's
get information from people who would otherwise never tell you anything. Nothing. The 13.5's get those
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secrets. They get them because, even for those people who are so deeply silent, they recognize that this
could be their savior. They do not really think that. It is just an opportunity for them to unburden
themselves. Human beings need to unburden themselves. One of the reasons why we have partners in this
life is so that we have somebody we can say to, "I had a terrible day today," and you can commiserate
together over how terrible your day has been. We really need that. It is part of being human.
Neptune exalted. Always be suspicious when you see Neptune exalted. What that is saying to you is: you
don't really know what is going on, which means that that can already be a dilemma. The other thing it is
saying is that if you don't bother with it, you have a spiritual opportunity. The charismatic genius who can
find a role for everyone.
In the white book: The listener that has a gift for finding a role for others. Remember that this is the
perspective of the driver looking backwards. We have gone this way, that way and the other way and, by
the 13.5 listening, they can see how that person fits into those various roles. "This is your way. I know all
about this way. Let me tell you about this way."
Jupiter in detriment (not very detrimental). The able administrator. Given the extreme positive nature of
this position, mundane application is rare. 'Extreme' is a word that is not used very often.
In the white book: The listener whose gift for finding a role for others is practical and suited to
administration. Go back to what it is to be a 13.5 child. It is very different. The 13.5 baby who comes into
the world is not a savior and yet, this baby gets to hear his mother's laments. The mother does not really
realize that the baby is taking that in or pulling it out. They hear things growing up that they do not
necessarily want to hear. They find out things that they do not necessarily want to find out and they get to
experience things they do not necessarily want to experience.
Out of that process comes the projection of being a listener. But, of course, there is also a great advantage
because people are willing to tell them things. They have the advantage of knowing a great deal because
of that. Thus, they can be of value to humanity in being able to share that experience. Whether or not that
gets out is another story. Again, remember that this is a gate that has great transpersonal skills but it still
has to find the 33 at the other side in order to express itself properly.
13.6 The Optimist
When you look at the 13.6, think about the 59.6. Think about it in the sense that this is the course of
promiscuous listening that takes place when one is young and quickly ends because one ends up looking
for the soul mate to listen to, that perfect person or thing to listen to. Sitting up there on the roof of the
house, there is the dream that there is really an experience, that there is really something that is worth
listening to and worth reflecting upon for the benefit of humanity.
The Optimist. The ability to accept any limited interaction... (This is in the early part of life.) ... as a
necessary step towards greater union. Remember that this is the harmony to the third line of Pessimism
where one is constantly disappointed by what one meets in the world, that human beings are mundane,
that what they talk about is not very interesting. It is just the same old human stuff and it is very easy to
become pessimistic in the third line. But the sixth line knows better, in the sense that it is transpersonal. It
looks to the whole circuitry, to the whole experiential way, and it knows that in that experience, there are
things of value that always come out. So there is hope.
Mars exalted. The energy to persevere. Unlimited hope. In the white book: The hope that openness will
lead to better relationships. Again, please understand that the whole thing about the listener is that it is not
what the listener is hearing; it is through whom the listener hears because this is so deeply social. This is
about collecting history from others so that, in the end, the optimism is about the quality of the experience
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in the people that you meet. The old Chinese saying, "May you live in interesting times." At least you
have something interesting to say.
Mercury in detriment. Navvete. By the way, that naivete is often a presumption of others. That is, the
hope is not naive. The abstract process is connected to the emotional wave and recognizes that hope is
part of the world. It knows that there are things that can be hoped for because in the cycle of things they
can be fulfilled.
The translation of mutual interest into universality. This detriment is not so bad. It is really about trying to
find a way in which, through relationships, the experience of humanity is something that is uplifting. So,
the moment that the 13.6 finds some commonality with somebody, there is this sense that "Maybe
everybody could be like this," or "Maybe everybody could do this."
The 13.6 does not have an easy place to go to. It goes to the 49.1. It goes to the place of emotional
principles. It goes to the place that will establish what we really need. "What is necessary?" is the theme
of the 49.1. So the 13.6 sits up there as an Optimist and hopes but at the same time, it realizes: "Do I
know what is really necessary?" What it is looking for is a hope for what is necessary because what is
necessary will ultimately make the difference in experience.
Don't expect 13.6's, once they are mature, to really listen. They often just don't. Like all sixth lines, they
have that possibility for truly wise experiences. This naivete is only when they are young but it is also a
presumption of others. That is, when you speak to an adult who is an optimist and they are full of hope,
you tend to look at them as if they were a kind of bumpkin. The world is a tough place; we all know that.
Most hopes in life that are really big hopes get dashed in the way life works. So, when you have a mature
person telling you, "I know that a better world will come; Jesus is coming," we think that they are naive,
but actually they are not. It is just the way they appear to be. It is not naive. It is part of what it is to be
human, which is to suffer and to be hopeful at the other side. This is life. What to do?
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HEXAGRAM 14 POSSESSION IN GREAT MEASURE
Gate 14 is Possession in Great Measure. It does not give away its power. One of the themes that underlie
this hexagram in the traditional ['Ching is this concept of wealth and the loading up of the wagon. Our
most common word for energy is money.
The power that is inherent here in the 14th gate is not about money in the sense of hard currency. It is
about power as currency. Whenever people have defined motors and they are dependent on other people
to get that energy out, I always tell them, "You wouldn't walk through the street with a basket full of
money and let everybody grab in there and pull out the money." That energy itself is a force to bring
about the right direction.
14.1 Money isn't everything
First lines always describe the nature of a hexagram. It says Money isn't everything. It is very important
to understand the nature of this gate. This is an individual power source that is focused on bringing about
order through empowering the right direction.
The recognition that wealth has its own problems. Jupiter exalted. The lust for lucre tempered by higher
principals. Mercury in detriment. The delusion that you can throw money at problems. The basis of this
hexagram on the exalted side is the desperation to turn the energy into currency. You want that energy to
be converted into a successful direction. After all, it is a main tantric channel. In the detriment, there is
this sense that you give your energy to others so that they will get you to the right direction. I know so
many 14's who look at my 2 and say, "I have the key and you'll be the driver."
In the white book: The key to manifesting power is higher principles. The higher principle is, "I am not
wasting my energy. I use my energy for the correct direction in my process in order to bring about order."
The other side of this is: Energy alone can never be the key. You can't just pay someone to take you to the
right direction. It does not work. You can't just throw your energy at them. Think about the dilemma of
the third gate, which is the inherent confusion in the life process. That confusion has not disappeared by
the time you get to the 14th gate.
We are still talking about an unaware center. The 14th gate has all the power within it to drive, but it does
not know where to drive. On its own, it can't know where to drive, so there is always a tendency in people
with the 14th gate to make attempts at doing things that are not for them, or they will ask other people to
take them into that direction.
There is a helplessness in this Possession in Great Measure. It is important to understand that it is an
enormously powerful gate but it is truly vulnerable to being misguided. Remember that the first line is
there to understand the nature of the hexagram: it does have this power for direction, but that does not
mean that it knows what to do with it. It does not know where it is going in its process.
14.2 Management
When you get to the second line, you get to projection. Instead of being involved in recognizing the
nature of one's own power to empower, here is someone who is projecting out that they have that power.
This line is called Management. It is a joke. The wisdom that investing in expertise brings rewards. First
of all, wisdom is something that you do not get right away in life. You may never get it at all. This is an
advice to the second line. It says expertise would really help you to find the right direction. When you are
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dealing with the first three lines, the lower trigram, there is no capacity to understand the nature of the
other side. The 14.1, 2 and 3 know at some level that there is this power within them, but they do not
know the driver. They always have to meet the driver. They just project out this energy.
Jupiter exalted. Expansion. The ability to delegate responsibility. Mars in detriment. The vanity to be
one's own best expert. This is individual. Built into their genetic individual material (that means every
single genetic gate) is a selfpreservation phenomenon that says, "Don't interfere with me. Don't take me
away from my trip. Don't try to control me. Don't try to condition me." All individuality is that way.
When you get to the second line, the exalted says: The key to power lies in not trying to be and do
everything alone. Remember, that they are projecting out that they have this power. So that is what they
assume they can do. "I have the power and I can get my own direction. Nobody needs to help me."
On the other side: The key to power is doing everything individually. It is Mars. You know, I try very
hard to get you to let go of your moralistic judgments about this and that. Mars, in its immaturity, gets a
very bad reputation. In this particular line, that immaturity is actually of value because the immaturity
says, "I do not need anybody else. I do have the power. I can do it myself. I know where I will go." It
does not mean that they do. It still means that they will run into all the problems that second lines run
into, which is being found out: big talk about your direction but you do not get there.
By the way, if someone comes to me for a reading and they have the detriment in that line, I tell them,
"Be your own expert, no matter what happens." That is their nature. None of this is about seeing any of
those aspects as being less, or missing, or wrong. It is exactly what the genetic information within them
demands, in that sense.
14.3 Service
When you get to the third line, you get to Service. By the way, people who have the 14th gate always
have a great deal of power within them and they are often very successful materially in their process
because that power does convert. When they find the right direction they can always turn that energy into
currency. They can always turn that energy into what looks after them.
When you come to the third line, you come to the process of trial and error in life. The whole thing for the
14 is to recognize that the only way for them to get through the whole process, ultimately, is to find some
way to externalize that energy as service.
The utilization of talent and wealth for the highest good. This channel leads to the 8/1 which is the
Creative Role Model. Individuality is never about being best. It is about being different. The wealth and
talent of any individual lies in the glorification of their own individuality and their identification with
their individuality, so that they can be different.
Earth exalted. Selfless contribution to society. That sounds very nice. It does not mean that it is going to
work. It does not mean that they will be rewarded, because they will make mistakes. "I will give my
energy to the anarchist movement." That service to any kind of higher principle (by the way, those are
relative terms) is going to be filled with trial and error and these people will offer their energy to different
drivers until they have the experience to recognize which driver can really be good for them.
Neptune in detriment. Greed and the self-destruction of moral fiber. This line is deeply misunderstood.
The greed of this line is what you see at the very top, 'The accumulation and retention of power'. If you
are holding all this power inside of you and you do not find a way to release it, it will make you ill. It is
the greed of saying, "I am not going to provide you with that energy." It is like driving up to a gas station
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with your car and the car is empty. You push it in and the gas station attendant looks at you and says,
"No. I want to keep this gasoline because my car can run out of gasoline. You'd better push your car some
place else."
The 'moral fiber' is in the sense of how society will react to that kind of holding back of all of that energy:
by condemning it. If somebody has this line, it does not mean that it is a negative. It means that is the way
in which they are going to come to grips with this process of trial and error.
Remember, everything about the 14th hexagram is dependent on wisdom, which comes later. So, what
these people end up being very good at, late in life, is being the ones who know that there will always be
the possibility for a perfect place to put their energy. It is deep inside. It does not get to manifest until the
resonance in the sixth line. In reality, there is this touch of it underneath where they say, "Aha, I am
actually holding on to all of this money so that I can give it away to a really good cause, but I have not
found the cause yet. If I do find it, I will give it all away." Bill Gates said: "I am too young to give away
my money, and I do not know what to give it to. " Holding on with the potential that it can be of service.
14.4 Security
The 14th gate may not be aware. The nature of the fuel conditions the direction. Think about it as the
difference between a vegetarian and a carnivore. A vegetarian 14 or a carnivore 14 will push you in
different directions because you have to shop in different places to fulfill that energy. It may not be aware,
but it will change the direction just out of the very nature of the energy. When you come to the fourth
line, you come to the first possibility to be able to go across the channel to recognize that one has to deal
with the other side: that there is a driver.
The first thing that this is all about is the skill of being able to fix your power and show it on the outside.
The fourth line is always about being one-directional, being focused, being fixed. It is taking an aspect out
of the foundation of its nature and it is fixing it. The concentration on establishing a strong foundation.
Moon exalted. Protection from assault. These are people that project out their power in a very fixed way.
It is very difficult to take these people away from that. This is their thing.
Mars in detriment. Overconfidence in meeting the challenge of competition that may threaten the very
basis of security.
They are so fixed in their power, one way. For example, somebody that always wants to hit you in the
face, if you know that they are fixed that way, you can kick them between the legs. They are not ready for
that. They can have a lot of power focused in one direction but they can be enormously weak all over the
place. It is very important to understand that about the limitation of Security.
The key to power lies in developing skills to ensure a strong foundation. The skills lie in the focusing of
that energy. These people need to have a very fixed direction in life. It is very important for them to see
that their energy is being put in one thing and it is moving along and they move through that path, and
then they can develop the skill for using that energy.
On the other side: Without the proper skills, the inability to guarantee security. If one does not really
know how to deal with that energy, if they cannot find a way of fixing that energy, they can be easily
manipulated by other people. Their energy gets easily pulled away. Remember that the fourth line is the
beginning of this transpersonal process. Because of that, it runs into difficulties due to its fixedness. It still
does not have the capacity to be embraced by the other side. That comes with the fifth line. When I do a
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reading for somebody who has this line, I always tell them the same thing, "Get a job that you really love,
and do it and fix your energy on it. "
14.5 Arrogance
The first line is about the nature of the hexagram and the fifth line is how the world wants it to be. The
fifth line is in resonance to the second line. We saw that the second line projects out that power but it does
not necessarily have it. By the way, the 2.2 on the other side, in the detriment, can be genius as madness.
The inability to recognize one's own nature projecting outwards can lead to very bizarre and dangerous
paths.
In the fifth line you come to a field that is being projected upon. That is why the line is called Arrogance.
The ever present risk inherent in positions of power. It does not mean that you are in a position of power.
It means that everybody assumes that you are in a position of power. When you meet a 14.5, you assume
that they are powerful. This is how you project onto their energy. They may or may not be powerful.
Sun exalted. Innate dignity. The only protection for an individual who is projected upon as being
powerful is that they'd better mind their p's and q's, or other people will gang up on them and check out
that power to find out how long it takes to nail them to the cross.
Venus in detriment. A dissatisfaction with the gifts of others that creates feelings of superiority. You get
projected on that you have the power to provide the energy for direction, but people will provide the link.
This is a transpersonal process, the 14 with the 2, and the 2 becomes the driver. The 14 is sitting there
saying. "I am giving this one all this fuel and this is where they take me? I don't think that they are good
drivers. I don't think they know where they are going." Out of that comes the sense of, "They are not very
important. They are not very good at what they are doing. They are limited in their capacity." This is the
other side. The fifth is always being projected on. The world sees power as arrogance.
14.6 Humility
When you get to the sixth line you get to the end of a process, so you go beyond the nature of the
hexagram itself. We saw that, whenever we were looking at the sixth line of any gate, it is pointed
towards the first line of the next gate, which is the 34.1, in this case. They are deeply related to each other.
There is such a mystery in following the movement of the wheel to understand what is really going on
inside of us. The 34 is about keeping us alive.
Here, in the sixth line, you have Humility. That is where you go from the projection of Arrogance. The
14.5 that is clear about the nature of its energy and that has a lousy driver, has every right in the world to
think that this driver doesn't know where they are going. That is not arrogance. That is the 14.5 refusing
to be the victim of the 3.5, the theme of which was Victimization. The 14.5 says, "I am not going to be
your victim. If you want all my power, you are seducing me, so you'd better take me to the right place."
When you get to the sixth line, all that stuff is over. Here, you have the humility that recognizes very
clearly that it has power. Right after that it says, "So what?" The fulfillment of that power can never be
that person's own.
Remember the nature of the knowing circuit. In order for it to be fulfilled, it is not possible for one human
being to carry within them that activation. It is not possible. Our knowing process and our awareness
processes are deeply connected to our interrelationship with each other.
The recognition takes two sides: the spiritual side is, "It is in the hands of the gods. It is god's will. This
energy was given to me." The other side literally is the same. It is just stripped of its mystical, faith
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oriented aspect. It is just the same: "I am lucky." It is the existential good luck of being in the right place
at the right time.
Humility. Wealth and power at its most exalted. Sun exalted. The enlightened recognition that material
success is God's will. Earth in detriment. All manifestations of this position are essentially positive. The
Earth represents the existentialist recognition that material success was unavoidable... (You could not
avoid being given this power. You got it with birth.) ...and the humility engendered by such serendipity.
Just because they recognize that they have been given all that power, there is nothing that says that they
will do anything with it. It does not mean that they will find a driver. Think about the 59.6, the One Night
Stand. The 14.6 is saying, "Yes, I will accept a driver but it better be a very special one because I just do
not want to go around the block. I want to see the whole thing. I will accept you as a driver if, in the end, I
can be clear about what it is that I know through my connection to you."
After all, this is all about knowing. Be clear about sixth lines. This sixth line has enormous power in it,
but they rarely commit their energy to anything. It is not just about going across the channel and finding
the driver. It is about where the driver will take them. It is not about having the opportunity to fill the car
up with fuel and drive off because the driver can turn the key and move along the road. It is: "Where are
we going on this road?"
Where every individual goes is silence. This is path of all individuality: to the silence of coming to the
point where what is knowable is known. The 14.6 wants to know that the direction it takes through that
relationship goes where it needs to go, in order for it to know its own nature and the value of its
movement through space. But all sixth lines stand back and say, "Yes, but I'll wait. This is God's will."
This is the existential reality. This is not about being selective. This is not about looking for drivers. This
is about it happening and the good fortune that one can see in that, finally, there is this possibility.
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HEXAGRAM 15 MODESTY
(Please read the section on the Vessel of Love from the Glossary in Volume 2 copied below.)
ANALOGY FOR THE VESSEL OF LOVE
The Vessel of Love is one of the incarnation crosses comprised of four gates: the 15 (Modesty), the 46
(Pushing Upward), the 25 (Innocence), and the 10 (Treading).
The Vessel of Love is not something that is understood. We have a great deal of confusion about the
nature of love. There are many ways in which love exists in the world. Most human beings are familiar
with love through what we call electro-magnetic connection: that love is a question of attraction and
repulsion. The real nature of love is something that tends to be locked up with that attraction and
repulsion that we have in those kinds of interactions.
The ego and the Self ( the G center) are very different and the love of the ego, which is a possessive love,
is very different than the love of the Self. The love of the Self is never something that is directly personal.
It has a great deal to do with oneself, but the real love is something that is a by-product of the way human
beings live their lives. That is what real love means. So in looking at these four different gates, not only
will I try to bring you to a point that you see the nature of the lines, but also to keep in mind the nature of
these gates of love and how they operate in the world.
In order to really understand the Vessel of Love, it is best to have an analogy and I use the analogy of a
container for all four gates of the Vessel. You can call it a vessel. The container has an outside wall. Our
outside wall is what we call the aura. That is, you are penetrated the moment that somebody penetrates
your aura. The outside wall, the aura, is the 15th gate, the love of humanity, which is in essence the
collective aura that adds up to the totality, but it is the surface of us. If you have a vessel and go inside the
vessel, you have a wall on the outside, what we call the aura, but you also have a wall on the inside that
contains it. For us, it is no longer the aura; this becomes the flesh. That is, it becomes this enclosed sack
that holds us all inside. This is the flesh. This is the container and the 46th gate is the love of the body, the
love of the flesh.
If you have a container with an outside and an inside wall and it is contained, you have to have something
inside. What you have inside, in our case, is blood. What is really inside is what we call universal love,
the 25th gate. When you have all of that together, the love of humanity that creates the aura, the love of
the flesh that creates the Maya and the blood that makes it all run with its spirit, you have to have some
place to go. The way that you go is that you take the Vessel and you pour it and when you pour it, it
comes out through the lip which is the 10th gate because the 10th gate is the way. The way is the potential
to love oneself. So, in our work, we will take a look at these four aspects of the Vessel through each of the
four gates.
Everything that is alive, every living thing right to the cellular level, all has the 15th gate. It is the only
universal gate and it is an extraordinary thing. Over the lines, it gives you its nature. The quality of
behavior does not belong here. It belongs to the polarity of the 15th gate, to the 10th gate. The 10/ 15
polarity is a very important polarity. It is about behavior because, in the end, the behavior, though it is
something that can be seen individually, is collective.
This gate is not speaking of the individual behavior of the 10, but of the collective behavior of humanity.
The quality of behavior which expresses the proper balance between extremes. Only then do you
understand what the extremes are about. They are about creating a proper balance for humanity.
Everything has to be part of the human drama. Everything. And it is here in the 15th gate that we get
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differentiation because we have all of these different possibilities of rhythms that can be created, all of the
extremes of behavior, in that sense, or the whole field or spectrum of behavior.
15.1 Duty
First lines always tell you the truth of a hexagram. Here, the truth is Duty. Overview line: The ability to
confront any challenge without expectations. Because this is an overview line, this is something that is
going to be learned. Because we have a lower trigram, it is not personal. Remember that this is the gate of
the aura. We have the most powerful auras in the fourth and fifth lines and very contained auras in the
first three lines. In other words, only when they are met by something is there this impression of their
large aura.
In fact, that is not an aura that is moving outwards. It is an aura that is being contained because the
process is an inward one. This ability to confront any challenge, to be able to accept any place within the
spectrum of extremes, is very important. The love of humanity is not about loving your neighbor, which
is tough business. It is not about that. It is about being yourself. This generates love in the world.
Venus exalted. Harmonic relationships which give support for the fulfillment of any task. What we know
about first lines is that, not only are they not transpersonal, but they are introspective; they are looking
inwards. You will discover that, in the 15th gate, there are a lot of strange things. You also meet them in
the 46th gate. They are very odd.This first line is deeply personal but not personal in the sense that it is
looking outwards for relationships. It is personal in the sense that it is deeply concerned about what
relationships are all about. How do you make a relationship harmonic? In other words: how do you get
people not to interfere with your extreme?
Everything about the lower trigram for people who have the 15th gate is that they can be deeply disturbed
by people who interfere with their rhythm. Their harmonic relationship is not about how they can have a
harmonic relationship with others, but how they can find others who have a harmonic relationship with
them and let them be their extreme so that humanity is balanced.
When someone is an extremist and you try to stop them (you give them Valium, or you lock them up), you
thus destroy a piece of love in the world. It sounds funny but it is true. The love of humanity can only
exist when all of the extremes are permitted, when human beings get to live out their actual nature.
Mars in detriment. Alienation engendered through exaggerated claims. In white book: The capacity of the
Self to confront any challenge through extreme and harmonic relationships; or The capacity of the Self to
alienate others through extremes. All of this is about the social context. The person who is a first line
extremist does not even know that other people think that he is an extremist until he is told. For them, it
runs into difficulties because they are always looking for a way to live out their extreme.
15.2 Influence
This is an unusual second line because it is an exalted second line for the very reason that most second
lines are in a vulnerable position: because other people can always see into them. If you are an extremist
and people can see that you are an extremist, it is likely that they will leave you alone. It is likely that they
won't interfere with your extremism. This second line has the capacity for being influential. Remember
that the 15/5 goes right down to the cellular level. It is absolutely essential that we have diversity in
rhythms. It is absolutely essential that extremists live out their extreme roles. Otherwise, we do not have
the opportunity to see what genetic rhythm is really of value for the totality. The second line is called
Influence. There is no overview line. The extremism is right there from the beginning. It does not take
time.
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The Sun exalted. Modesty and right action result in enduring standards. The ancient Chinese considered
the 15th hexagram to be perfect. All of the six lines, to the ancient Chinese, are exalted simply because
this is the core of what it is to be alive in the world. So, that 'enduring standard' is to be oneself. Right
action is to follow one's extreme. I tell people, if they are busy, run. If you are not busy, sleep. It is okay.
Honor your extreme. The whole thing with the second line is that it does not know that it is extreme. It is
just living it out, but other people see the extremism.
If you have a 15.2 that comes to your office for a steady job, you will not hire them. You may not know
why you will not hire them. It is not that you say, "This one is unreliable." Something inside of you (they
have a strong aura) says to you, "Do not hire this person; they will quit next week."
In the white book: The capacity of the Self to accept its extreme nature as correct. It is very beautiful for
these people. Where they become the paper tigers is the moment that somebody sees that they are extreme
and actually tries to change that: some 17 year-old that is dying from junk and everybody wants to save
that person's life. Quotation of Jesus: "Only my father knows what is clean." Who is to judge the way we
come or the way we go?"
The Earth in detriment. Where the Sun's actions are natural, the Earth's are contrived, though given the
power of this position, the some effect can be expected. The capacity to use the extreme nature of the Self
to influence others. These are people that finally go get found out. They are extremists; they realize that
they can use that to their advantage. It is still the same thing. They stay with their extremism. That is
healthy. Don't break these people of their extreme rhythms. Encourage them to love their rhythms.
15.3 Ego inflation
At the end of the lower trigram here, you end up with difficulties. This line is a real trial and error line and
it really goes through quite a dilemma with that. What often happens to 15.3's is that they do not live out
their natural extreme rhythm. They find an extreme within themselves that is effective in dealing with
others and they hang onto that extreme as a way of dealing with others, rather than going through their
own natural process, which means to be extreme and not.
Here, in the third line, we have this confusion that comes in the self, where suddenly you see the
appearance of ego. The confusion is between what is natural and comes to us choicelessly and what the
ego claims to be its own. This is the attempt to control extreme behavior in order to protect oneself.
Remember, third lines do not know that there is something else on the other side. They don't know that
there is a 5 waiting there to lock it into a pattern. So, of course they have to adapt but what they learn is
that they do not have to adapt to certain types if they keep to a certain kind of extreme behavior.
The risk that modesty, once recognized, will self-destruct. The Earth exalted and this is a very funny
exalted. The 15th and 46th gate have very strange lines. Where the otherwise negative contrived
modesty... In other words: this is extremism that becomes a negative because the person relies on that
extreme to manipulate others, rather than just going through a natural flow.. ..is here reinforced by
recognition and maintained as an effective strategy.
For example: somebody finds that it is very effective for them always to be late, even though it is not
necessarily natural for them to be late, but it becomes an effective strategy for them to use with other
people. This is a 15.3 trait, using extremism in a negative way rather than just living out their extreme.
What that means is that they are being conditioned away from their true extreme rhythm and they are
being conditioned to work with just one rhythm to protect themselves in their trial and error process. So,
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this is a very strange exalted. Those people who think that exalted lines are all wonderful: have the 15.3
exalted and see what it is likel
Mercury in detriment. The 'I told you so' mentality. The moment that you recognize how an extreme
works, you can predict its effects. Third lines lead to wisdom in the sixth line. This can be very clever.
This is someone who can really see somebody else's extreme strategy. "I knew they would do that. I told
you that."
Ego inflation. The extremism of the Self as a strategy to control the flow. But remember, that is a
conditioned extreme, not their natural extreme. On the other side: The capacity of the Self to point out the
extremes of others. Like all things, it does not mean that that is inherently negative. It simply means that
that is really a process. It is an overview line. It is going to take time. When I was teaching kids, they
developed extreme techniques in order to get attention. They waited for this extreme technique to work.
They yelled for instance. It is just that kind of thing.
15.4 The Wallflower
When we come to the upper trigram, we are dealing with a gate that represents humanity, that in its nature
releases or manifests what we call love in terms of humanity, that is in a collective logical circuit which is
fundamentally social to begin with, and you are dealing with transpersonal gates.
So, obviously, you are dealing with, particularly in the fourth and fifth lines, a very deep social
mechanism and yet, at the same time, it is here in this fourth line that you see the underlying dilemma that
we find in all fourth lines. It is the underlying dilemma that is also in the 18.4, that is the deep inadequacy
that always accompanies a fourth line.
Fourth lines are really a perfect binary. On one side, they are enormously influential because that one-
tracked, fixed focusing is so powerful. Yet, on the other side, by being one -tracked and fixed, there are so
many other things that are not part of one's process. There are so many other possibilities that are left
behind. And, unlike the lower trigram that is always ready to meet and to deal with the surprise of the
other side, the fourth line knows it is there and it feels inadequate.
This is one of the most deeply inadequate of all lines in the I'Ching. These people feel inadequate because
all they can ever do is externalize their extreme and they always feel like they are out of place until they
find an environment, or a relationship, in which they are part of the flow and their extreme fits in. When
their extreme fits in, they can finally feel okay about the nature of who they are.
But remember, when you are looking at lines, you have to think about the children that came into the
world carrying them. 15.4 children can end up with a deep sense of inadequacy in their life because this is
the collective line that most resembles what it is to be individual. In other words, this is the collective line
that can feel like a freak. It can feel out of place because it is fixed in its extreme.
It is called The Wallflower. Modesty as a shield against exposure of inadequacy. Jupiter exalted. A
genuine form that may or may not mask inadequacies. Saturn in detriment. An ultimately weak defense
leading to exposure and humiliation. Somebody can be fixed in their extreme and not be inadequate, even
though, as a person, they can feel inadequate. When they find the flow, that sense of inadequacy will go
away, but in the detriment, the sense of inadequacy is pushed in their face long before they get a chance to
really find themselves. Again, please understand that their aura is very powerful and they can find their
flow.
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In the white book: The uncomfortableness of the Self when it is out of the flow (by being extreme and
fixed); or Extremism that keeps the Self out of the flow (and the sense of humiliation). Nowhere worse
than when a child is in school. Remember to look at a line with the perception of it being a child because
you get a real picture of the adult. This deeply collective child felt out of place, looking for where it could
find relationships so that it could feel in the flow.
15.5 Sensitivity
Fifth lines are what society wants to see a hexagram as being. It is about Sensitivity. Because the fifth line
gets projected on that it is the extremist and that it is capable of extremes, it is also capable of rising to the
occasion or not. In other words, the fifth line has a kind of advantage, as many fifth lines do, that it does
not have to be an extremist but it can certainly be an extremist when it is projected on that it is time to be
extreme. This is the way society likes it.
What society likes is the possibility that extremism can be tampered with in some way, based on the
environment. For example: it is an historical phenomenon that we send young, relatively fresh, innocent
boys into wars and we tell them to become killing freaks. We turn them into extremes and then we expect
them to turn that off when they come back because the environment does not require that anymore. All
these very gentle and noble people who, for centuries, were very polite and distinguished and then they go
out in the battlefield and go absolutely nuts. Society likes the idea that an extreme is something that can
be handy when you need it but it can be torn down if the environment does not require it.
Here the line is called Sensitivity. The ability to sense when otherwise balanced behavior must be
adjusted to meet the requirements of a changing environment. Jupiter exalted. The power to grow. In
other words, these people learn to live out their extremes in a way that is not offensive to the totality.
These people have big auras. If others come and project on them, the aura is reinforced. If you have a 15.3
and a 15.5, the 15.5 is the one that will get the attention first. It is projected on them. So they learn to deal
with that.
Pluto in detriment. The tendency to overcompensate. In other words, to go from one extreme to another
just to satisfy the needs and demands of the conditioning environment. This can take them out of what is
natural for them. We have learned something in the 7.5, The General, which was that the fifth line always
has to wait for the call in order for it to be the one that calls. It has to wait for the right moment in time
because everything is a matter of time.
So, the whole thing is that it is not just when the environment changes that the extremism in the 15.5
balances or alters itself. It is when it is the right time in that changed environment that it has its greatest
impact because, remember, these people are magnetic people. They bring us into the rhythms.
Every single one of us here are the by-product of 15 conditioning. All of us. We have all been conditioned
that way from the very beginning. Every line of the 46 is conditioning. They are all conditioning lines.
We all get conditioned by all of the people that have the 15 and that represent our spectrum.
Think about that. If all the people that have the 15th gate don't live out their extreme nature because of the
conditions of society, you strip away love from the world. You destroy the aura of the world. That is a
fact. This is what we deal with. The love of humanity is having a society that is ordered enough and
organized enough that all of the extremes are not extremes anymore, but just a place in the spectrum.
There has to be a place in the spectrum for all of those things and then we generate a healthy aura as a
human society. The 15's are deeply conditioned by society.
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By the way, the 15's have their revenge. You condition the 15 not to be extreme but the 15 still controls
you in its aura. It has its powers.
In the white book: The capacity of the Self to grow through experiencing the extremes; or The drive of
the Self to overcompensate and disturb the flow.
15.6 Self-defense
We have seen, all along, the quality of the sixth line, which is that it rarely participates, other than when it
is young, in the nature of the hexagram. We have seen that sixth lines sit up there on the roof of the house
and look out over everything and they wonder, "Why bother?" Here, you have a case that is extreme in its
nature, which is only in the gates of extremes. When the 15.6 has finished its business, the next step is to
become the 52.1. The 52nd gate is Keeping Still Mountain. It is about being focused and concentrated. It
is about passive energy and the first line is called Think before you speak, which is the foundation of what
it is to be still. The foundation of what it is to be still is to wait and to wait until one has the possibility of
clarity.
Being that the 52nd gate is the root pressure of the logical process and that we are dealing with the love
that is inherent in the logical process, this is a very important step between these two. It is so clear in the
overview of this line, which is called Self-defense. Modesty that is never confused with weakness. Think
about the children who have the 15.6. They know that they are extreme and they don't see anything wrong
with that. They see it as their power in life and yet, of course, they will have to deal very quickly with the
way in which society deals with extremes when they are not at the right time. So, they pull it back, Self-
defense, and they will go up and sit on the roof of the house and they will not let anybody bear witness to
their extreme. They will think before they speak. They will wait. They will be still.
Like all sixth lines, there can always be that moment in the lifetime, young or old, in which the sixth line
transcends its apathy and becomes involved. After all, that is the wave in the sixth line, apathy/sympathy.
That apathy can simply go away in the moment where that wisdom, that potential in the sixth line, is of
value to bring out the extreme because the extreme will actually lead to a pattern that is viable for all of
humanity. Remember, what we are looking at here is the love that guides us so that the patterns we have
in the future, we can trust as much as you can.
Pluto exalted. Constant reexamination to weed out the weakest aspect. Oh, are these people good at
pointing things out because they are extreme in the sense that, as a sixth line, they can look at the
spectrum of an extreme. They have a very good eye, in that sense.
Venus in detriment. A tendency to use harmony as a weapon in problem situations rather than focusing on
the root causes. In the white book: The power of the Self to ignore the weakest point in favor of harmony.
Because, very early in their life, they recognize their power, that they are not weak, they always recognize
weakness. In doing so, they are either apathetic about it or the moment that they are sympathetic about it
is the moment that they get into trouble. People don't like that pointed out to them. Of course, this is a
fundamentally social gate. So they sit on the roof. There is no sense in bothering. I will think before I
speak.
Keep something in mind about our work in Human Design. It is a logical system and, as such, it is there
to provide a framework in education for people so that they understand the basic mechanics of their
nature. The nature of love in the world has nothing to do with hugging and kissing, though all that is very
nice, but with making sure that people are educated from the earliest possible age. Without that education,
human beings do not have a possibility to see that what they are is not an embarrassment. What they are is
not something that has to be refined and improved, that it is not something that has to be perfected
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because it is exactly what it is supposed to be: an aspect of the totality, an aspect of the spectrum of
things.
We have a false prophecy about the nature of love. Wre assume that we generate love in the world by
loving each other. This is a funny thing because this has nothing to do with what this love is all about. It
has nothing to do with loving your guru, your friend or your dog. It has to be with being one with the
creative process, accepting surrender for what it is to be you and seeing in that surrender your own
beauty. Only when you find surrender in your own beauty do you put love in the aura of the world. There
is no other way. No matter how sweet and nice you are and how much love you have within yourself and
how much love you want to put out in the world, it is not going to change the aura of our planet. What
changes the aura of our planet is human beings living their nature. That is the crux of what our work is, so
that human beings can just live out their nature without the morality, without the conditioning, to see
clearly what it is just to be themselves. That creates love in the world. We won't see that in our time.
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HEXAGRAM 16 ENTHUSIASM
One of the things to recognize about the nature of the collective process is that it is all about the difficulty
in getting access to energy. On one side of the throat are three gates that are pointed directly at motors
(35, 12, 45) so they become gates in which action is always a possibility. The 20 can connect to the sacral.
The only gate that points downward other than to the G center, and that does not have any access to
energy, is the 16th gate.
It says above the lines of this gate: The great art of enriching life by the harmonic channeling of energy.
There is no energy. If you go down to the 48th gate, what you have is a gate of depth that is part of the
splenic system, which is not a motor. Due to that, the talent that is inherent in the 16/48 is a talent that can
be deeply frustrated because it does not have easy access to energy.
The 16th gate is very important because it is the primary gate of identification. This is different from a
gate of identity. We looked at the three gates of identity. They release the identities of direction that come
out of the Sphinx gates. In the 16th gate, we are dealing with a gate of identification. I have many people
in my life who have been on the mystical, spiritual path and so many of them who ended up in the hands
of Eastern philosophy have been told that to identify is a terrible thing. "Do not identifyl" If you have the
16th gate or anything else in the logical process, if you do not identify with it, you will never master it.
The 16th gate is the gate of skills. The whole basis of skill in talent is that you have to identify with what
you are doing. Without identifying with it, there is no way in which you can fulfill it. If you don't identify
with being an artist, you can never be an artist in that sense. This is an identification that is operating
mechanically. In other words, for people who have the 16th gate in their design and who are taught that
they should not identify, they are being told, "Don't identify with your identification."
But you have to be identified on the mundane plane, whatever it is that you do. Otherwise, an artist or a
musician has no way to achieve perfection and mastery. Mastery is based on identification. The artist
needs that deep identification in order to repeat and perfect his pattern.
Understand something very important about the logical process. You can't dabble in logic. You have to be
identified with the process, which means extended experimentation in order to develop a clear
understanding. Unless you are identified with that logical process, you are not going to get the rewards
from logic. It is not enough to simply say that this is the way the process works. You have to identify with
that process. You have to get through that process. You have to experiment with it and come out at the
other end with either proof or disproof of the validity of whatever the pattern is.
16.1 Delusion
The first line always acts as a foundation. Here the first line is called Delusion. False enthusiasm.
The Earth exalted. The daydreamer. One of the things to understand about the nature of these skills is that
one has to identify with the skills but one does not necessarily get the energy or the depth to be able to
enrich the skills and turn them into manifestation. Daydreaming is something very important in the
logical process. We see in the 62.1 that, in order to be able to establish the best detail, one needs to go into
a fantasy world in order to collect all of the possible information. For example, if you are trying to work
out the detail of something so that you get other people to understand it, it helps to go through your own
process, logically, to see how you would explain it and to see whether you really understand your own
description of it.
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Here, this is about the beginning of skills that are recognized through daydreaming. It is very difficult for
a 16 to actually get to live out their talent unless they have access to a motor. If they do not have some
place else to go, they will be very frustrated. So much about the logical process is being prepared for the
possibility that the energy may be there. That is why you have all these committees doing all of the work
and preparation in order to get everything done, to get all the daydreaming out of the way, so when the
moment comes that the energy is available, manifestation is possible.
In the white book: The expression of talent through daydreaming. That can mean many things. This can
be a very creative force. But it is also as a musician who does not have to have the instrument in his hand,
he can hear the music in his head. You can daydream about what kind of configuration it should have,
how it should be orchestrated, which instrument should be there and so on. That is not just about the
traditional arts. It is true for anything in the life.
Mercury in detriment. The public communication of inevitably unrealized claims. "I have the skills to be
able to do this." That does not mean that the skills are actually going to manifest. The 16 is a throat gate
which says, "I experiment" or "I don't experiment". Because it is a throat gate, it is always ready to say, "I
have the skills," without necessarily having the capacity to bring those skills into manifestation.
In the white book: The tendency to express fantasy as fact. These are people that will say to you, "I have
this theory and I know that it works." They know that it works because they looked at it in their fantasy
structure. That is like somebody sitting with a computer and theoretically designing an automobile. It is
one thing to fantasize that automobile and to create its virtual reality, but it is another thing to actually get
the energy to turn it into a real vehicle that will drive through the streets. This is the dilemma of a 16
without a motor. What often happens to these people is that it is so frustrating that they will say that they
already have the proven experiment out of their fantasy, simply because they never had an opportunity to
actually manifest it.
When you daydream, you are looking for patterns and you are experimenting with them. The key to our
creative logical process is that we go through so many patterns first, within our conceptual nature, before
we can ever get a chance to actualize them. It is very difficult for any logical process to manifest because
the access to energy is difficult.
It is very simple to understand this gate. The nature of this gate is that it dreams to have energy. All that
daydreaming represents is: How could my skills function if I actually had energy? The same is true for the
62. How can I express my opinion unless I have all the details? So you try to find all the details. In the
16th gate, we find the skill to recognize the need for energy. The skills are already there. It is the energy
that is missing. Because it is fundamentally frustrating, you start off with the first line that says, "All I can
do is dream to have the energy. " Sometimes that dream can become a delusion when I think that I really
have access to that energy.
16.2 The Cynic
When you get to the second line, you get to those people who project out exactly that skill, "I know who
has the energy and who doesn't." That is why it is called The Cynic. They burst your bubble. You come to
the 16 and you say, "I have got this wonderful theory and plan to do this," and the 16 says to you, "it
won't work. I will not give you my skills because I know that it will not work." That is the capacity
because the first three lines are not transpersonal; they are only caught up in their own process. The
second line can be very painful, if you are coming to that second line. You see, the 16, unlike any of the
other gates, really does not like the 48. It is looking for the 58, which is much further down the road. The
48 is just depth and the 16 knows that there are all kinds of depth in the world and it can meet all kinds of
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48's in the world. For the 16, it does not make any difference but it asks itself, "Can I turn that into
something that really manifests?" This is what cynicism means: The sharpness to burst bubbles.
Sun exalted. Self-reliance and the skill to judge objectively any claim regardless of rhetoric. This is the 16
saying, "Yeah, but if you had the energy, this would not work." They are self-reliant in the sense that they
identify with their skill. Otherwise, they say, "Maybe it will work," and then they get caught up in this
business that it does not work and they feel very uncomfortable and they do not feel talented at all.
In the white book: The expression of the skill to judge objectively; or the other side: Objectivity
expressed through cynicism.
Mercury in detriment. The compulsive cynic, whose very cynicism is a source of enthusiasm. Whenever
you see this word enthusiasm, please translate that into talent or skills. What this is really saying is: the
compulsive cynic, whose very cynicism is a source for talent, a source for skills. You come to them and
say, "Lets do this and that," they say, "No, that will not work. If you had the energy, it just wouldn't
work." There are many people who will take that and recognize the skill that is being projected on them;
they will see what will work, or they try to find what will work.
The other thing is that these people themselves, within their own process, and not simply the cynic that
penetrates others because they are projecting beings, are very uncertain about their own skills. Again, we
have the paper tiger. The projecting field does not know the depth inside. The first line knows that it has
skills and it spends all its time dreaming about how to use them. The second line is just looking out to see
where the energy is and does not really know the depth of its own skills. So, these are people that can be
very cynical about themselves and their own talent as well.
Most of that is rooted in the fact that they have never had access to energy so that they could really
experiment with their talent. There are so many children who have the 16th gate that is not connected to a
motor. If you give them a piano lesson, you cannot expect that they are really going to be proficient at the
piano. It is not going to happen. They will be able to dream about being a great piano player. They will be
able to tell everybody else who can or cannot play, "This one plays well. This one plays terrible." But
they, for themselves, will not have this consistent energy and they will not be able to stay with it, and then
they spend the rest of their lives being frustrated, asking themselves, "Why didn't I finish my piano
studies? Why didn't I become a musician? I can dream how wonderful that would be because I know that
the skills are inside of me. "
The whole talent process can be very frustrating if you cannot get to the energy, and it says something
important about the nature of talent. As we progressed in the development of our civilizations, we have
created arts that have now multicomplex, multi-personality art forms exemplified by television and film,
in which you have hundreds and sometimes thousands of people working together on the same creative
process. A creative process is a logical process. To get access to all of that energy, you will need a lot
more bodies around in order to release the magic of what talent can be. It is collective.
What happens when the sacral center is connected to the 16 is that anybody who has a motor connected to
the 16 is going to be able to operate in their skills. There is no question about that. We are working in
streams here. If you have a motor connected to the throat and you have a 16, it is operating, but it is not
operating 'in the logical way. The way it works is dependent on how the energy is connected to the throat.
If you have somebody that has the 20/34 Charisma and they have the 16, you know that their Charisma is
their skill. It will come out in a different way. They have a skill in being able to say "I am."
16.3 Independence
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When you get to the third line, you get to the line of adaptation. It says Independence. Whenever I see
anybody with this line, I always tell them the same thing, "You have the skills. All you have to do is wait.
There is just nothing to do. You have to wait for the energy to come. You can't get the energy yourself
and you have to stay comfortable with the fact that you have the skills."
Self-generating and sustaining enthusiasm. Moon exalted. The proper timing to maintain rhythm and
avoid deflation. In other words, if you have the skills and you do not wait, you will be very frustrated
because you can't exercise those skills the way you want to. You have to wait for the right energy to come
into your life so that you can exercise your skill. It is a process of trial and error where you learn to
recognize who, when they come into your aura, can allow you to manifest and you learn to recognize the
right timing for things.
Mars in detriment. The child whose overconfidence... (which lies in the third line, recognizing that it does
have skills) ...may lead to frustration, and the ensuing dependence on others to regenerate enthusiasm,
thus creating an unnecessary reliance. In other words, early frustration with this process leads to the idea
within them that they do not really have the skills and they are very dependent on other people in order
for any kind of skill within them to manifest.
In the white book: The independent skill and possible talent to express proper timing and rhythm. The
word 'possible' refers to the trial and error process. With the 16.3 you have to learn.
On the other side, we have: The need to have others confirm one's skill or talent. That other side refers to
situations in which, as a child (the focus here is on the child), the talent gets diminished. The talent can
get repressed at a very early age because the skills are there and they feel comfortable in their skills but,
because they do not necessarily have the right energy available to them, they cannot live that out.
Remember that we are dealing with a throat gate. That means they speak as if they have the skills. It can
be very embarrassing for them not to have the energy and it simply does not work.
16.4 The Leader
When you get to the upper trigram, to the fourth line, you get to the process of externalizing. The moment
that you get to the capacity to externalize, you get to a transpersonal gate. This 16 knows that there is a 48
on the other side. It knows that talent is a collective process and it recognizes that the only way that things
are going to work is if it externalizes its capacity to recognize who has the energy and who doesn't. That
is why it is called The Leader.
Genuine and sincere support and recognition of others. Genuine support comes after the recognition. This
is the 16 that always gets recognized when the other one has the energy necessary, so that there is a
possibility that what they do together can manifest as talent in the world.
Jupiter exalted. Enthusiasm for and service to higher goals. Mars in detriment. The demagogue. Well, the
demagogue ain't pretty but nevertheless, they do the same job. These are people that will guide the
collective force and give it an outlet in the throat center for manifestation.
In the white book: The skill to recognize and support the talents of others; or The refusal to support and
recognize the talents of others. Both of those are built-in because this is the leader that can recognize
where the energy is. This is the capacity of creative leadership, "I recognize where the energy is and I
better look after these people, support them, pump them up and make sure that they are ready to deliver
that energy." The leader is very fixed in finding the energy. The lives of these people are absorbed with
identifying with energy so that they can get the energy for manifestation.
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16.5 The Grinch
When we come to the fifth line, we come to the line that gets projected on. The first line tells us the nature
of a hexagram and the fifth line tells us how the world sees it. This line is called The Grinch. That name
comes from a children's book by Charles Dickens. The Grinch is like Scrooge: they are not the kind of
people that give easily. They are very tight in that sense.
The refusal to share in enthusiasm. In talent. These people are being projected on that they are the ones
that have the skills, that they are the ones that can get everybody else's depth out. It is always being
projected on them. "This one has the skills. I'll hook up with this one. I am able to get to the throat and get
my stuff out. "
Pluto exalted: The power to avoid enthusiasm for the sole purpose of being converted. As with Dickens'
Scrooge, eventual conversion leads to greater and more enduring enthusiasm. Here is somebody that has
skills but he/she is a fifth line and the outside world is saying, "Wow, you have all these skills." They
need to be told that over and over again. They usually answer with, "Maybe, I don't know."
The 16.5 can always recognize the skills in others. It is the resonance to the second line, to The Cynic. It
has the capacity to distinguish who has skills and who doesn't. The 16.5 waits until all that pressure
comes and, only when others encourage them, are they going to have an opportunity to flower. The
people who are coming to encourage them are people who have the energy but no skills. They have the
energy and say, "This is the one that has the skills. Let me project on them that they are really the best."
In the white book: The lack of confidence in the expression of skills that needs the encouragement of
others. This is a lack of confidence because it is all projection. "I do not know if I am talented but all of
you are saying so. I don't have the energy myself and so I don't really know how talented I am. I don't
really know how good my skills are. You keep on telling me that they are great, but I still don't know."
The lunar detriment is: The perverse feeling that sharing in enthusiasm hampers individual development.
"Why should I be happy when...?" this line asks. "Why should I make all of them happy and give all of
them talent when I still don't feel good myself? Why should I bother? This is only a projection." This is
the universalization of talent. One of the things that we expect from our artists is that, when they are
complimented or asked about their art, they all play humble. This is the image of the fifth line. "Yes, but
there are others who are so much better. The music, the dance scene, the editing could have been better. "
The nature of the collective logical process is deeply connected to our critical capacity to check it and
perfect it and to work on it.
When you have a fifth line, somebody has to recognize your talent and project that on you in order for
you to have the opportunity to respond to it. That is true for all fifth lines. When the fifth line complains
that it does not get recognition, you can ask them if they recognize other people. What is underneath here
is that the fifth line is concerned about finding whether they truly have the skill. They do not care whether
others have it. People can project onto my 51.5 that I am an initiator but, until I initiate somebody, it is
nothing but a projection. The fifth line is taking in all this projection and it needs to see whether or not
that projection has a basis in reality.
16.6 Gullibility
When you get to transition in the sixth line, you get to another process. We have seen that sixth lines have
a resistance to their process because they are looking for something that is much larger in context. When
we are getting to the sixth line here, we know that it is looking to the whole circuit. When somebody is
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born with a 16, how talent and what kind of talent is going to come out of that 16 is an open book. It
depends on how you are conditioned. It depends on your culture, your environment, your education and
training and the people around you. However, you are brought to whatever that talent is.
The great dilemma for the 16.6 is not the question of where the energy is. They already recognize that
energy is available. It comes and it goes, but it is available and they know that. They are deeply concerned
about what kind of skill can actually take that energy and manifest it, so that the experiment can be
proven and then can be used to guide humanity into the future. In other words, how can they find their
immortality? How can they find the perfection in the pattern that they are looking for?
This line is called Gullibility. The susceptibility to propaganda. They start very early in their life being
susceptible to which skill is really the answer. They are not willing to commit themselves and their talent
to anything until they can really see that not only will the energy be there, but there are exactly the right
skills involved to manifest that and bring that out.
Neptune exalted. The ability to experience, examine and then reject misleading enthusiasm. These are
people that get pointed towards different talents very early in their lives. This is an ongoing process in
which they themselves can go through their whole life not really knowing which one, and therefore not
commit their talent. They do not think that they have the correct type of skill to work with. They have not
seen a skill yet that can really manifest what they want to manifest.
On the Jupiterion side: The same principle, but where Neptune will destroy and then seek new forms,
Jupiter will painfully withdraw, its enthusiasm for social structures permanently prejudiced. This is so
typical for sixth lines. You get to a point where you do not get to see whatever this ideal is. You don't get
to see that it is possible and then you get very depressed with that and leave it alone. It is just a matter of,
"Yes, I have talent but I don't have the skills that I really need," even though the skills are there.
In the white book: The talent to assess the expression of others; or The failure to assess the expression of
others. This is the whole nature of propaganda in that sense. It is always about them being pointed
towards skills until they can get to that skill where they can recognize that it is really them and it works,
that they can manifest this very skill. Only then will they commit their talent.
What these people end up being, most of all, are disinterested critics of the arts. They have very good
mouths. They are connected to the talent process and they end up saying, "That one is not very good
because their technique is bad. " They walk into a museum and they point at three paintings and whether
they have been trained or not, they say, "This technique is not very good." Or they go to the opera and
say, "The baritone is terrible," not that they want to do anything about it. They don't want to go and tell
them; they do not want to train them or help them. They do not want to write books on criticism. They do
not want to make their living recognizing all that. There is just this kind of, "Well, that is not good
enough. That is not quite going to work." This becomes their nature.
By the way, people who are gullible when they are young become very good in recognizing lies in regard
to a skill. People who project outwards that they have a skill, the 16.6 can look at it and say "No, no," but
they won't bother to tell them, correct them or join them in a healing process.
When you go from the 16.6, you come to the 35.1. Again, we have seen throughout the whole process of
looking at the collective logic and the collective abstract, how they constantly keep intertwining with each
other. They keep moving into each other. There is a famous cliche that we have. It is about 'art as an
imitation of life.' The 16th gate is the gate of art in this cliche and the 35th gate is the gate of life.
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HEXAGRAM 17 FOLLOWING
We move over to the logic process and we come to the 17th gate. The first thing to recognize is that
exactly opposite the 17th gate is the 18th gate. They are opposite each other in the zodiac and they are
both in the same circuitry. They both belong to the logic process and they represent a deep link to each
other. There is a very important capacity that lies within the 17th gate.
The nature of this gate is the future for us. What I am teaching you in terms of wave resonance, what I
teach you in terms of the Human Design System, I often make the comment that it is not for our time.
This is the time of planting a seed. It is a time of getting people to recognize that this kind of knowledge
is available to anyone. The nature of this knowledge is so that humanity can be properly organized. We
can be organized in a way that we can't possibly imagine now because it will be a natural process. Rather
than education beginning with belief, education can begin with true knowledge, the logical understanding
of the nature of what it is to be human, one's place in the world, and where one belongs.
I am involved with many things in my process with Human Design and one of them is called the Global
Incarnation Index, something I have been working on for many years. When this index will be finished, it
will outline every possible incarnation that is available to humanity and it will describe it in detail, as any
index will do. The nature of what the mystics call the Akashic Records is that everybody will be able to
see at some point where they fit in; it is not for this time. It will be for a time when this knowledge
permeates the world. It will be a time for people to be able to see exactly where they belong and exactly
who belongs with them. So the thing to recognize about the nature of the Aquarian Age is that it will
move from the Piscean teacher (11.4) to the Aquarian teacher who will be symbolized by the 17.4. It will
be the Personnel Manager. It will be the organizer.
Recognize about the 17th gate that it has enormous significance for us because this is the teaching of the
future which has to be deeply rooted in understanding that is of value to human rights, the relationship to
the 1 8th gate at the other end. If there is anything that is philosophical in my nature, it is the recognition
that every single individual has to be emancipated; not simply that we emancipate races and gender but
we emancipate the individual, and we can only do that when the individual recognizes its own nature and
has its place in the world. This is the ultimate truth for humanity and this is something that will come out
of this capacity to organize us. The time has not come yet where that is the way in which this channel
serves the world.
One of the classic examples of this gate in our time was Baghwan Shree Ralneesh, Osho. He was a classic
17/62. This is a foreboding, a foreshadowing of what is possible in terms of the capacity to be able to
organize humanity. But the reality is that organization cannot take place until understanding takes place,
and the understanding of this process leads to the 62nd gate, which is the gate of the Maya. It is the gate
of establishing all the names. By the time that we have written all the names of the genome, by the time
that we truly understand the nature of the mechanics of the universe, when our understanding is complete
in terms of what is essential to understand, to recognize intrinsically our nature, that is the moment that
we can begin organizing. Up until that point, including the point that we are at now, this channel, like the
11, can be just as bizarre because not all understanding serves fundamental human rights. It is a matter of
fact that a great deal of collective understanding is detrimental to fundamental human rights. This is there
now in the nature of the 17.
Earlier, I quoted John Milton from 'Paradise Lost,' which he puts into the mouth of the devil. The devil
says, "Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven." This hexagram is entitled Following. The ancient
law that those who wish to rule must first know how to serve. This is the nature of the 17th gate, that
understanding must be of service. Only then will it lead to rule, will it lead to the power that
understanding can bring.
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Remember that the logical process is always trying to establish for us a pattern that we can trust and move
with into the future. It is a very important pattern for us and for all human beings who are deeply
concerned: we see that in integration, at the most primary level. There is this fear of what tomorrow will
bring. Being of service is the need to be able to logically understand that the pattern is secure and that
tomorrow will be secure. If understanding is not of service to humanity in that way, then the
understanding can be detrimental. In other words, we have been promised many times by our logical
leadership that the pattern will secure us into the future, only to discover that it did exactly the opposite.
So it is something to be aware of: it can also be the devil's law, not just simply god's law.
17.1 Openness
This foundation line is called Openness. Mars exalted. The energy to sustain a broad spectrum of stimuli.
When you are talking about the first line, you are talking about the true nature of the hexagram. Venus in
detriment. A tendency to limit openness to aesthetically pleasing stimuli. Both of those are about the
capacity to always have opinions. This is a very opinionated line.
The exalted is about The possibility of having many opinions. That is the nature of this gate. There are
many opinions to have. After all, everything that has a name, everything in your vocabulary, you have an
opinion attached to it; otherwise, you could not have that name in your vocabulary because it comes out
of opinion. So we have loads of opinions. The 17.1 is full of all of these opinions.
The other side is: The possibility to limit opinions to what is pleasing. These people have opinions about
what they like to have opinions about. Things that they are not interested in, they don't have opinions
about or they do not tell you about them. In other words, their opinions are about things they like to have
opinions about. These people, for example, have opinions about art. That is what they love to have
opinions about. They have no opinion about politics. They are very much locked into that because that is
what pleases them. They want to have a critical capacity only when it comes to art. The 17 is opposite the
1 8th gate. It is full of challenging authority. It is full of criticism. These are the opinions that are attached
to every name. The 17th gate entails a built-in experimentation that is taking place within about the value
that any name has.
17.2 Discrimination
We come to projection here. This line is called Discrimination. The benefit of associations based on
highest values. This line (and the whole hexagram) is always about two things: is one serving, or is one
trying to rule? Is one serving one opinion, which means that somebody asks you, or the situation asks
you, are you trying to rule and to impose your opinion? Are you trying to rule with your understanding?
This is always the dynamic tension that exists within this hexagram, between serving and ruling. Here
you have the classic in the projection and, as you will see, by the time we get to the fifth line, it becomes
something quite special. It becomes No human is an island. It becomes something very important to
understand in our nature. In the second line we have the beginning of this process.
Sun exalted. The successful achievement of purpose through proper alignment. 'Proper alignment,' in this
case is: The possibility to develop opinions through relationships. Somebody says to you, "What do you
think?" Then you can project. If nobody asks you what you think, you can't project.
When you come to the other side of this, you have the Moon in detriment. An overactive discrimination
that leaves one virtually alone. The possibility of being opinionated at the expense of relationships. This
is trying to rule. This is the other side, the side that cannot wait to be asked. They have to project it
outwards. In the moment of projection, they are trying to rule with their understanding. Please, recognize
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something about that. They may be right. It is always true in all of these gates. Do not bring any moral
judgment to the fact that they operate through their polarity. Both sides can be right or wrong. But the
nature of the way in which it works is that they are always trying to rule with their understanding.
This is a collective circuit. It is about sharing. One can only rule when they serve, which means that you
have to be asked first. This is the tension that exists in the 17th hexagram. It is much easier for people
who have the 17 without the 62. The 17 without the 62, by the very circumstance of not having the whole
channel, has to wait for that opportunity to be asked, or the opportunity that the situation asks them
because, suddenly, it is activated. It is very different when you are dealing with the 17/62. Like the 43/23,
it can become an automatic loose canon. It just blurts out and the understanding is imposed on somebody
else. They may not like that. It may be right or wrong.
17.3 Understanding
When you get to the top of the lower trigram, you get to the line of adaptation, the line of bonds made and
broken, of irresponsibility. It is called Understanding. The awareness that the best road is not necessarily
the most interesting. The best road for any opinion is towards detail. That is what is meant here. The only
thing that makes an opinion worthwhile is if it is substantiated by appropriate detail.
Pluto exalted. The following of the best road provides the experience necessary to meet the challenge of
the road's end. In the Book of Letters: The understanding that the best opinions are grounded in detail.
Opinions need to be substantiated; otherwise, experimentation will never take place. Remember the
difficulty of the logic process to find energy. Only the best opinion has a chance to get and attract that
energy. If there are any loopholes, they will always come up in the experimentation.
The Earth in detriment. The taking of short-cuts. One may get to the end quicker, but essential experience
will be missing. The possibility of skipping details and limiting the value of the opinion. The fact is that
every time an opinion does not have enough detail, there is always going to be somebody out there (I call
them the money lenders) that says, "Well, you'd better go back to the committee room because we are not
ready to invest yet in that experiment because we noticed that you did not have form ZW 21926 done and
you have to get that form done before we can even consider it." You have to have all of the details.
17.4 The Personnel manager
We come to the upper trigram and this line of externalization. It is a one -tracked process, but it is the
mirror image of The Teacher on the abstract side that we looked at. I mentioned at the beginning that
what we are looking at is the Aquarian potential to the Piscean teacher on the abstract side. Here it is
called The Personnel manager.
Pluto exalted, a lovely place for Pluto. The ability to probe and discover the underlying motivation and
resources of those who wish to follow. Here we find the gift to be able to really understand others. One
cannot rule until one understands others. It is essential because to rule means that you must serve the
other. That is the nature of ruling. That is why the Chinese had this tradition of the superior man as a
ruler. This superior man served as a ruler. He served the interest of the people above and beyond his own
interest. This is the nature of true service: as a ruler being the one who serves.
Jupiter in detriment. The overgenerous and often misguided acceptance of would-be -followers, often with
disastrous results. The Personnel manager has the gift of being able to say, "Here is the pattern and here is
where you fit in because I understand what you need." Given the nature of ignorance in the world, this
can be a very frightening thing in the way in which it actually gets applied and there are an enormous
number of people that get manipulated this way.
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In the Book of Letters: The possibility of opinions based on the understanding of others. "I understand
how this works and I understand how it works for you, and in that I can serve you."
The other side is Jupiter in detriment. The possibility of opinions attracting others. This is really a
capacity to attract others and bring them to this order. This is all about order. This is the design of an
organizational being.
Everything about the mental logic process is figuring out how to get everybody to fit into a cubbyhole,
something everybody hates. One of the ironies for me is that the ability to see where everybody fits in,
which is the capacity that lies within this knowledge, would be in many ways deeply offensive to a great
number of humanity in the sense that it would appear to be manipulation, which it is not. It can only come
at a time when people really understand from a very early point.
This is a strong manipulative field: bringing people to understanding through the ability to externalize
that. But it is a very fixed understanding. This is not universal understanding. This is just externalization.
It is trying to get your opinion across and it is a gift of attracting people to your opinion. It is very
common to see that in politics, for example when you have a one-opinion candidate like Le Pen in France.
He is a one-opinion politician. "I understand that this is bad," and then he works attracting everybody to
that one opinion. They get very fixed in that.
17.5 No man is an island
The fifth line has a special significance. One of the things to recognize about the nature of this line is its
resonance to the 18.5, which is its opposition. The 18.5 is the line of Therapy; on one side, the capacity to
both seek and provide guidance, and on the other side, chronic instability and the mental patient. Here,
you find the mirror of this. This is an important mirror because what the fifth line in the 18 talks about is
the inability to do it alone. Here, we have the line of No human is an island. The recognition, however
understood, that there is no end to hierarchies.
Uranus exalted. Please understand the significance of that. We will have Uranus transiting this gate in
about 14 years. This will be an enormous event. Uranus exalted: The ultimate creative expression of
interdependency, whether as god's will or global synthesis. What you see here is Opinions that can
express the value of being organized, whether mundane or spiritual.
The greatest service of the logical process is to finally be able to allow everyone to have exactly their
place in resonance. If everybody is in their place in resonance, everybody has a complete process and the
totality has a process far beyond that. This is an Aquarian process. That is why you have Uranus here that
is establishing the exalted. We will have a very important transit of this which will have an enormous
impact, not in terms of when it happens. The most important thing to see about transits is that every time
you look at a date in the ephemeris, remember that millions of babies are being born.
The transit of Uranus through that gate (it stayed there for a year and eight months, and it stayed two or
three months in that line), will have an enormous impact because all those children will carry it as their
genetic material. We will have a whole new generation that, from the very beginning, is open to this
global synthesis, and they will be born all over the world. It will not be limited to any particular place on
the planet.
Mars in detriment. The arrogance, despite all the evidence to claim, that the buck stops here. We see this
in the world today with what fundamentalism is: the last gasp against the globalization that homogenizes
everything, the world where everything simply gets homogenized and brought together. There is a deep
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resistance to that. On the other side of the Uranian power is the old, primitive resistance to being
organized and it is the vanity to assume that where you belong in this life is up to you, not God's will, not
global synthesis.
The possibility of opinions that refuse to see the value of being organized. It is not about whether these
people are good guys or bad ones. It is simply about recognizing that there is always going to be a tension
because we have not reached the point yet where we are socially organized. I can't remember the details
exactly but they have a scaling system of how to list the social possibilities of species.
At the highest level of that, it is based on a number of criteria. It is based on three generations living
together, the ability to communally interact and to support each other in times of stress. It ends up with a
fourth step which is about the fact that the species is reproduced selectively. So, the highest members of
this social organization business are ants, termites and wasps. We are going there. These insects are very
organized. Humanity is very different. We have this enormous self-consciousness at work but where we
are going towards is this highest level of organization which will really be fulfilled when we have spirit
awareness and we can create our consciousness outside of our forms.
But there always will be this resistance. What is coming is a genetic transformation. It is not about what
you want it to be. We have a genetic transformation at work. There will always be recessive genes. These
will be the recessives. They will say "I refuse to be organized." They will fight being organized and
ultimately, some time deep into the next century, we will have this dilemma between those who are ready
to be organized and those who refuse to be organized. That is going to be the political fault line of the
future. In order to universalize out of this fifth line, obviously, the pattern really has to work, whatever it
will be.
I have a great Mc Donald's story. Mc Donald's opens a new outlet every three hours and in Nov. '96, they
entered their one hundredth country. The thing that is so fascinating about that is that in the 100 countries
that now have Mc Donald's, there has never been a war between them.
17.6 The Bodhisattva
In the 18.6 we have Buddhahood, the spoilt one. Here, The Bodhisattva is the spoiled one. If other people
are not there waiting for their pronouncement, they get very upset. They understand what is good for
everybody and they expect everybody to be there. By the way, they just might. That is the other side of it.
The Bodhisattva is quite a role. The capacity is truly there, but again, like all sixth lines which are
transition lines, two things are always there in the transition. One is this sense of not giving what you are,
not giving understanding because it is not worthwhile. You want something much greater than that. You
want to see everything organized. It is not enough just to understand; you want to see it immediately
implemented so you can see all of that organized. That is what is interesting for this sixth line. Most of
the time, the understanding does not necessarily come out because there is this immediate recognition (no
energy) that it is not going to be able to get organized.
Perfected following, one with and the same as perfected leading. Moon exalted. The great nurturer. The
nature of this position is always positive, (including the detriment). Jupiter in detriment. The tendency on
the perfected path that it is a straight line that ends, rather than a circle.
In the white book: The possibility in understanding the nature of interdependence to express opinions of
value to others.
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But the fact that it is a possibility does not mean that you will do it. This is the kind of being that is not
going to share their opinion with you if they don't think that you will not do anything about it. The
moment that you are saying to them, "Give me your opinion and tell me what to do," these people love to
have people come to them and say, "Oh, Master. What do I do?" The Master sits there and says, "Don't..."
The role is to organize, if somebody comes to them and says, "Oh, please tell me what I should do?" They
are ready because the organization can take place. "Let me organize you." But if they can't organize them,
then they don't do it. One of the things about these people is that they are often deeply attractive because
they don't offer you the understanding unless you ask them, unless you go to them, unless you express a
need for that.
The detriment: Where understanding is achieved, the possibility of having the opinion that there is
nothing else to learn. These can be very arrogant people. I have met this many, many times with people
who have the 17.6 and they are astrologers, chakra workers, or whatever esoteric field. They always have
the same response, "I don't need to understand anything else. I have this." There is always that aspect to
them as well. 'The tendency on the perfected path' and you think that this is it.
The whole thing to recognize about the inherent danger in both collective processes is that both of them
are at the mercy of mutation. The organization of humanity is not going to take place until a mutation
takes place. This mutation will change the way in which we will reproduce. It will make it very difficult
for our species to reproduce. It forces us to be organized. This will come out of mutation.
I was growing up in Montreal in a very nice neighborhood and it got more and more busy as more and
more people bought automobiles. There were a lot of children in that neighborhood. The adults were
always saying, "We should really ask the city to put up a traffic light." You know when they put up the
traffic light? When the first child was killed, that moment, the traffic light went up. So the reality is that
the way in which that operates is to wait until the mutation takes place in order for that process to change.
The collective is at the mercy of mutation because everything they thought they understood or every
experience they thought they had made sense of, all of a sudden, there is something new. In the moment
that something new is there, that whole process on both sides has to go through a transformation in order
to try to come to grips with what the new is. The resonance here is in the fifth line because this line is
going to be ready. The Uranian generation will be ready to cooperate in order to keep the species alive.
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HEXAGRAM 18 WORK ON WHAT HAS BEEN SPOILT
We move to the third potential in the splenic center which is the 18' gate, the gate of correction, where
we work on what has been spoilt. It is part of the channel of insatiability. The keyword here is the
awareness of what is vital or not. If the correction is not going to bring you a sense of value, if it is not
vital, leave it alone. The awareness potential is to perfect via concentration. This is the place of salt in the
body. It is where we store all of this possibility for correction.
The 18 th hexagram is a related to the Oedipus and Electra complex because of its fear, the fear of
authority. The first authorities we all meet are our parents. This is a natural place for this struggle for
authority: the conflict between the male and the female and the conflict between same sexes in the family
structure, this challenge of authority, this generation gap that is here in the 18th gate.
The heading above the lines in the Rave I'Ching: The vigilance and determination to uphold and defend
basic and fundamental human rights. It is my standard joke about people having the 18th gate who
come up to me and say, "Ra, you should not smoke." I answer, "You mean that is true for everybody on
earth?" and they say, "Yes". This is a collective experience. This is collective correction.
One of the things to recognize about any kind of collective gate: don't take it personally. So many people
with the 18 th gate, when you say to them, "You did a wonderful job," they say, "No. I could have done
this. I could have done that." It is not personal. It is a process.
18.1 Conservatism
When you start here with the first line, it sounds like the other lines. The 32.1 is Conservation, the 28.1
was Preparation, and here we have Conservatism. You can see the basic nature. Remember, every time
that you look at a line you can see its framework. You know that all first lines will carry with it the need
to establish the foundation for the whole hexagram. The foundation of the 18th gate is: The adherence to
traditional patterns despite changing circumstances.
Earth exalted. Gradual modification to avoid eventual upheaval. Jupiter in detriment. The patriarch
whose rigidity guarantees deterioration. In the original I'Ching, the 1 8th gate is called 'Work on what has
been spoilt by the Father'. I am deeply impressed with the mathematics of the I'Ching but not Confucius'
interpretation of sexes. The fact is that, even in the original, there are several lines that were attributed
directly to the Mother. In terms of the way that we look at the world and they way in which this works, it
does not really matter, in that sense. Within the 18 th gate, we will always have that challenge to authority,
whether it is male or female.
The potential to correct through gradual modifications of judgments. It is like the way you feel about a
parent when you are growing up with them and what you feel about them when you become a parent
yourself. This is the nature of the first line, a totally different process. This is the gradual modification of
judgments but, basically, very conservative. In the Confucius sense of the word, that conservative
authority was always the father figure. This is what you get on the other side. You have to recognize
about this line that, in a woman, it operates through what is yang in her. In other words, it is not really
about the father and the mother but it is the male and the female. Le., it is the yang in the mother that can
be operating here.
The potential to refuse to correct. "My mother was always right," or "My father is always right." It can be
deeply conservative in that sense. It is trying to set the basis. The basis is that if the authority does not
have to be corrected, then you have a pattern you can trust. That is what the logic is looking for. It is
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looking for a perfect pattern. A perfect pattern does not need any correction and, therefore, we can safely
project into the future out of that pattern.
The person on the detriment side says, "My father's father was right, so I am right." This movement is
going through there and, because of that, you can say, "You listen to me because he was right with me
and I am right with you," to establish that authority.
The potential to correct gradually. "Maybe my father was not always right." What happens in the first line
is that, because it is setting the foundation, if it is deeply disturbed in the first line, the whole thing falls
apart. This is all about correcting and challenging authority. First line people are very introspective and
look into the nature of that and say, "Basically, they were right," or "We have to bring about some slow
gradual change in that."
18.2 Terminal disease
With the second line, we come to projection and we have already seen that there is no sense of the nature
of the gate itself. There is simply the need to project, the need for correction outwards. That is why it is
the classic line of the bitch. The moment we have projection without any detail, we get all kinds of
confrontations and problems that come out of that.
Terminal disease. The recognition that what has been spoilt is irreversible. There is no way to correct it.
Pluto exalted: Acceptance and strength derived from a faith in spiritual regeneration. In other
words, leave all that business about correcting it and see if you can find your own inner quality. Forget
about the authority that you are so annoyed with.
In the white book: The acceptance that there is no potential for correction. Not everything needs to be
corrected and, by the way, that does not have to be bad. In other words, you can just see there is no way to
correct it, so all right. This thing cannot be corrected, so you deal with other things that can be corrected.
The other side of this, the Moon in detriment: The futile raging against the wind. "This father and
mother of mine are horrible and I want to change them. They have to change but they do not listen to me.
I keep on telling them that they have to change." It does not work. It is just this endless projecting
outwards. That becomes an illness in and of itself; we are dealing with the splenic system, after all. The
raging against the wind builds up all kinds of tensions within the body.
On the other side, in the detriment we have: The refusal to accept that there is no potential of correction.
They are the people that can drive you crazy because they will not let go of it. They just keep on
projecting because all second lines are limited in their ability to understand the other side. They do not
know what it takes to deal with the other side and what the circumstances of the other side are.
If somebody walks strangely due to a deformity and you want to correct that in them, he/she may have no
way of changing that. You can scream at them all the time but this will not do any good. There is a point
in which this can become enormously painful for anybody who has to deal with it and these people will
turn it on themselves. The 18th gate is notorious for taking itself seriously and getting very personal about
the nature of what their correction is supposed to be. They can become obsessed: "I refuse. It has to be
corrected. He has to fix it. The whole world must stop smoking."
18.3 The Zealot
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We know that the third line has the quality of having the introspective background in it and that it has the
gift to project that outwards. It recognizes that there is something on the other side of the channel and it
figures out a way to deal with or to adapt to that. The third line is in the emotional wave of bonds made
and broken, and when you bring the two elements together, it can be irresponsible; it can get involved in a
correction and then suddenly quit. That is also a part of it.
In the third line we have The Zealot. The energetic obsession to clean house. These are very good house
cleaners.
Neptune exalted. The dissolution of old forms at an acceptable price. The third gate wants to correct.
It is equipped. It has its detail, its introspection and its projecting capability. It wants to correct. It is
obsessed with correction. After all, this is what the gate is all about. If I cannot correct anything else, I
will sweep the floor and make sure that everything is nice and clean. The willingness is there, no matter
what the correction is about.
In the white book: An obsession with correction and its critical potential. Please recognize that, no matter
how difficult it sounds, our collective would be lost without this because it would have no basis for our
talents. There is no logic talent without this critical capacity, the perfecting capacity, this need to correct,
this need to challenge the authority. Everybody would still write music in its original form. Everybody
would dance the way we first danced. Nothing would have grown without this correcting capacity.
Nobody would have said, "I judge that to be lousy. Let me show you what is good."
Jupiter in detriment: Rigid jugdmentation that creates as many problems as it solves. "I know that
this has to be corrected, whether you like it or not." The 'you' on the other end has to provide the energy
for correction. If you are the 18 and you do not have the vital energy of the 58, all you can do is complain.
You don't have the capacity to do anything about it because you are not being energized.
An obsession with correction that does not bring satisfaction. What happens to the people at the detriment
level is that they have all this correcting energy and they may get a chance to correct something, but it
does not take away this "whatever" inside of them that two seconds later says, "Yes, and...? The thing we
just corrected needs further corrections. Let's correct it more." Adolf Hitler had the detriment of this line.
18.4 The Incompetent
When we get to the fourth line, we get to the beginning of the upper trigram. This line is called "The
Incompetent". The nature of fourth lines is to externalize, which means that these lines are very fixed on
a specific aspect. In some way, this is very reminiscent of the way in which the second line works.
Difficulties as a result of inadequacies that cannot be resolved because of inadequacies. What this
generally means for these people is that they will have a specific thing they want to correct. There are all
kinds of other things they are able to correct in their life, but the one thing that they really want to correct,
they can't because they are inadequate to do that. By the way, the moment that they meet somebody that
has the 48 and they get into contact with The Well, this can relieve inadequacy. The fear of inadequacy is
in the 48th gate, which is the next step in this stream.
Remember that we are looking at gates that are potentials in a four gate stream. Here we have the
potential of this awareness. The thing to recognize is that the awareness alone, this one thing that they
cannot correct because of inadequacy, can come into contact with the necessary depth. That is always
possible. All lines can ultimately be the exact mirrors of what they say.
Earth exalted: Given this negative position, survival through suffering. The inability to correct and
its potential for suffering. These are people that say, "I just cannot make it better," and they really suffer.
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"I can't fix it. I can't correct it. I can't come up with a solution to this problem. I can't do anything about
it."
Mercury in detriment. Indecision and anxiety and no escape from misfortune. The demands of
correction and its potential to generate anxiety. This constant anxiety comes from having this one thing
that you can't correct. When you see this line, be very careful about that. Don't see that as meaning that
they are incompetent with everything. That is not true. So often, when people see this line, they think that
it is saying that they are incompetent to correct their general process. This is not true. Everything about
the fourth line is about being fixed. You have to ask these people, "What is this one thing that you want to
fix, that you can't?" and see that isolated from the rest which you can work with.
The inability to correct and its potential for suffering; or The demands of correction and its potential to
generate anxiety. One can become very anxious if there is this one thing that one cannot fix. This is the
difficulty of the fourth line.
The fourth line can recognize incompetence everywhere because they know what it is like for them. This
is true for every line that you read and think, "Oh, my god, these poor people." The lines have their
positive and negative and every line is a duality. These are processes that we go through. And whatever
line you have, it is yours. Enjoy it.
18.5 Therapy
The fifth line is called Therapy. It is a very important line. After all, we have a collective process here and
the fifth line is the universalization line. Thus we have a universalized collective process here. It is the
ultimate of what this hexagram is all about. The interesting thing about this is that when you look at what
this line says, you realize that what correction represents is that it can be of enormous value or it can
make you very ill. That is what it is saying.
The strength to recognize a problem and to accept that it is beyond one 's power to solve it alone. This is
a collective sharing process. This is the only place where the word 'therapy' exists. So, this has a lot to do
with what we call therapeutic sciences or work that is done in our society.
Saturn exalted. The wisdom to both seek and provide guidance. The potential for correction and
judgment through relationships. This is the universalization of correction. It is about correcting the other.
The fifth line knows that, apart from the gate, there is a stream and a circuit and it wants to correct others
and needs correction as well. That is part of its process. That correction is rooted in relationships.
The Uranian side: The mental patient. Chronic instability and potential madness. Where would the
therapist be without their crazy patient? And they both have the same line. Think about that, folks. That is
very funny. The therapist and the crazy patient are the same. I have seldom met a therapist who was saner
than their patients. It simply does not work. They are simply, subjectively, relatively nuts in different
ways. They are exactly the same and mirrors of each other, and that mirror is here in Therapy.
Where relationships cannot assist in correcting the potential of mental instability. The need on one side to
correct the unstable and the need of the unstable to be corrected by the other: this is all built within this
fifth line.
The nature of this hexagram, in the end, is all about the protection of fundamental human rights: to find a
common ground in which it is possible for us to have a secure pattern which we can live in the future so
that we can evolve safely. This is all about finding the solution. Here you have somebody who is always
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ready to correct the other. They are not ready to correct themselves. In the detriment, you have the other
that is waiting for them to come and correct them. They all belong in the same bag.
18.6 Buddhahood
When you get to the sixth line, you get to the top of the house. You get to the roof. This line is called
Buddhahood. It says: The perfected form. These people assume that everything is correct, whether it is or
not.
Mars exalted. The Buddha state of the eternal child and the energy to find new horizons to avoid stasis.
"Everything is correct. Everything is great. What else is going to happen in this life? Where are we going?
What is in the future for us?"
Moon in detriment. The mundane application of the above. The ability to tap public opinion and share
methodology. "Let me tell you why my life is perfect." That is the nature of Buddhahood.
The potential of the perfected form through correction. Nothing needs to be corrected. Everything is okay.
The other side of this is: The potential to share the values of the correction with others. "Let me tell you
why."
By the way, if you have this in your design, whether you are male or female, you need somebody who is
much more mature than you, who is older than you as a lover. This is really about the child in its
relationship to authority. It is very much, in a sense, the young child's way of looking at life. Everything is
correct and okay. If you ask them why they feel so good, they will tell you that the grass grows green.
They will share their methodology with you. They are not interested in this corrective process. What they
really want is to be spoilt. This is not work on what has been spoilt. This is: please spoil me. Buy me nice
presents. Take me out to dinner. Treat me like a child. Give me my bath. They get what they want out of
everybody. If you look at the fuel at the other side, it is called Getting carried away. It can be very nice
except that you have to serve them all the time.
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HEXAGRAM 19 APPROACH
The 19th gate is a gate of wanting and needing. As you have seen, the fuel in the 41 fuels our
evolutionary process in sequences and the fuel in the 39 provides essential energy for the mutative stages
of that evolution. The 19th gate is about making sure it fuels having the resources necessary to maintain
all of that.
Those resources (we are dealing with a mystical channel here, the 19/49) are about mundane concerns
(how many sheep are in the fields, how much corn is growing), but is also spiritual. It is the beginning of
our religious process. It is the gate of animism. It is the gate where we worship the spirit in animals.
Because of their sacrifice, we can benefit from their energy by eating them. The 19th gate is a fuel that is
the energy to need or not.
Recognize that this is the pressure to have resources because it is in a pressure center. Anybody that ever
has been in a tribal environment, anybody that has ever been married, or anybody that has ever been
involved in co-support with somebody, understands the pressure of having the necessary resources. All
tribal relationships are rooted (no pun intended, but it is there) in the pressure to have the resources that
are necessary. It is important to see the power that lies in that gate: what resources does the tribe need?
Above the lines it says: That all things are interrelated is apparent and manifested through the action of
approach. The tribe recognizes the tribal bond. It is apparent. It is obvious that you have to support each
other. Otherwise, things do not work. In other words, everything is interrelated as long as there are
enough resources and the moment that there is a lack of resources, everything falls apart.
I know that so well. For example: the North of Spain. I love Basque country. It is very beautiful and there
are some extraordinary villages to the west of Bilbao. These villages are locked away in picturesque
mountains. Magnificent, ancient stone houses, huge houses that were meant for families with 10 or 12
children, dotted all over the landscape. They are all empty. The village, its culture and its life is gone. It is
gone because the resources were no longer available.
Remember that the resources in the 19 are not just the obvious, that we have to have enough to eat. Where
are the other things we need? The resources are things like education. As soon as Spain entered into the
modern European circle, the value of education for the young became something universalized and
something that was accentuated. These children, growing up in these tiny little villages, started to move
out into local colleges and universities. They saw different horizons that were not available for them in
their villages and suddenly, it was over. Thus, we have all the empty houses in this beautiful landscape.
Understand how important it is that everything is interrelated if there are enough resources. That tells you
about the nature of the world. It is easy to say that we are all brothers and sisters, united as one.
Everything is obviously interrelated as long as there are enough resources. If everybody has enough to eat
and has shelter, if everybody has opportunities relative to their skills and potentials, then you have an
interrelated, peaceful world.
It is very important to understand that the resources have to be there. This is the pressure to make sure
that the resources are there because, without them, everything is no longer interrelated in operation, even
though it is in fact. If there are not enough resources, the tribe will disband and the group will fall apart.
19.1 Interdependence
The first line is the foundation and it always gives you the essential truth of a hexagram. Here, the first
line is called Interdependence.
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The Sun exalted. The successful approach that does not lose its individual character in acceptance. At the
other end of the channel, you have the 49, the gate of Revolution, of principles and of rejection. It is an
emotional gate. When resources seem to be available one moment, they may not be there the next
moment.
In the white book: The pressure of wanting without losing one's identity when being accepted by others.
Others are always involved here because this is all about support. But the reality is that simply because
one needs to have resources does not mean that one gives up one's nature in order to get those resources.
This is very important. In other words, the tribe is not meant to be homogeneous. The tribe allows for
individuality, for difference, as long as everybody is contributing to the resources, which can then be
available for all.
When you get to the other side of this energy, we have the Moon in detriment. The tendency, once an
approach is accepted, to get stuck in continued reflection at the expense of continued development. It is
not just about wanting to be needed. It is not just about resource of food, spirit, religion. It is also the
resource of having a partner. Remember that this is the channel of the bride and groom. This is all about
creating the initial bargain that creates the foundation of how any kind of tribal relationship is going to
work.
In the white book it says: The pressure for acceptance which fears eventual rejection. The 19th gate flirts
because it is looking for the possible resources at the other end. The moment that those resources are
offered, it may not be the real thing. It may be momentary. The resources may be there and, later, they are
not because the 49th gate is moving in a wave.
The recognition about the first line is that, yes, there is interdependence, but there is no dependency. If
you go into any man/woman relationship anywhere on this planet, you will come to this place: are we
interdependent, or is one of us dependent on the other? This does more damage to relationships than
anything else. It is fundamental in establishing the nature of the tribe. Are we interdependent? Are we
allowed to be our own selves within our support for each other or is that support based on one being
dependent on the other, as we well know? The vast majority of relationships have been based on
dependency instead of interdependency.
Here you have the fundamental theme for marriage, for the bonding of people in a life work together. This
is the fundamental dilemma. Is it going to be interdependent, or is it a dependency? You can see very
clearly that, the moment there is dependency, there is a loss of identity. In the moment of dependency,
one has to go against one's own principles because one is dependent. Thus, they no longer have the power
that exists in interdependency.
19.2 Service
The second line is all about projection. You can see that this second line is the one that has a highly
valued title. It is called Service. If you wonder how they chose the priestesses for temples, the little boys
and girls that were the reincarnated Lama: these are the children that were usually pulled out. These are
the ones that get automatically recognized by those who are sensitive as being ready to serve at some
level, if you go down a "road lined with begging kids, it will be the child that has the 19.2 that you
address with, "You come. I'll feed you and you'll do some things for me." That is the one that is projecting
out, whether it is true or not, that they will be of service in return. Never forget the bargain. They are of
service in return for the resources. The resources have to be there but they are ready and willing to serve.
The dedication of personal resources as a result of external contact. Personal resources are: "You use your
body and I will feed you. You will work in my fields."
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Jupiter exalted. Dedication and service to the highest values. Mercury in detriment. Protracted indecision,
but given the nature of this position, eventual compliance. First we have the resistance to being of service,
to being a servant in order to get access to the resources. In our age, we do not have this so much, but in
the past, there were always indentured people, people who worked for other people, who were not given
salary but food, and lived as part of that community in return for their labors. This form of service is very
ancient. It is indentured labor in that sense. It can also be at the highest level.
The energy to want to be of service. That is projected out. That is why these people are chosen when they
are very young, so that they can be conditioned to that for the rest of their lives. They project out, "I will
be of service." Thus, they end up being of service. They end up being servants. They end up being of
service, but not necessarily for the highest values.
On the Mercurial side we have, The need to be wanted that will eventually turn its energy to service. In
other words, the only way for these people, no matter how much they resist, is that they finally have to be
of service in order to get the resources. Otherwise, they do not get in on the bargain and they are left out
of the tribe. If you are left out, you have no life anymore. This was the tribe's greatest weapon. There is
nowhere you can go if the tribe leaves you out: this 49 who says, "This one? No. Send them away."
We are dealing with a Mystical channel here, so we can never discount the fact that what is of mundane
service ("I will be of service if you will really reward me; I will give you the best service, if you can give
me the best reward.") can also be spiritual. It can also be the priestess that says, "I will serve my goddess
but I really want to be rewarded for that." The reward, in the spiritual sense, is that they will touch me,
that they will contact me, that they will fill me with their power. That is also part of it.
This is the beginning of our whole religious experience, which is also in this service. Somebody who
naturally was projected on that they would be of service, "Okay, you service this temple to this goddess,"
will spend their life at it. They develop this higher principle service. It is built into these people that they
are the ones that are selected in life to be of service.
It can be quite frustrating. If somebody comes and projects on them, "You can be of service," afterwards,
it turns out that they are not really. They are just pulled into that situation. If they do not really work
because they may not be right for that kind of service, then it falls apart. Then they have great difficulties.
Indentured labor is not slavery. There are always possibilities that at some point they can buy themselves
out, though it is a very difficult process.
This is where tribal prostitution is. Tribal prostitution is different from collective prostitution. Temple
prostitution or prostituting oneself for the benefit of the tribe. The nature of this is being brought into
service and made dependent. You can end up having to do things for the benefit of the tribe to get your
resources. That is not a comfortable thing to be involved in.
19.3 Dedication
We come to the theme of trial and error and bonds made and broken. Here we are dealing with this theme
within the context of support and the need for resources. This line is called Dedication. It is about being
dedicated to needing those resources. No matter where you go with a 19, you are not going to escape this
deep need for the resources, whatever the resources happen to be.
Receptivity to approach can only be maintained through vigilance, being on guard. It is one of the things
to understand about the nature of being dedicated, that it is not simply a matter to need to have the
resources but, in order to get them, you have to stay with it. You have to be vigilant. You have to guard
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and protect it. If you figure out how to condition animals (that is part of this stream), how to get sheep to
live in your backyard, it is not enough that you have them there and you know that you can eat them. You
have to guard against them being taken away as well. In other words, you have to remain vigilant. This is
not a one shot abstract experience where you grab the money and run. It means that you are stuck, that
you are hooked up. It means that you are locked into a tribal obligation. Thus, vigilance is necessary.
Otherwise, the resources can never be maintained or held on to.
Venus exalted. The natural ease with which communion is maintained. Think about this: the natural ease
with which communion is maintained, but not the resources. These people are so dedicated to needing the
resources that they have no problem with other people in the tribe. It is surprisingly easy for them to make
the relationships, but they do not really work out. They are a third line and make mistakes because it is
not about the relationship. It is about whether or not the relationship can manifest, can bring about the
resources. It does not matter who your associates are, but if you want to feed yourself and you want to
live, you will have to have associates that will bring you to that. It requires vigilance, not simply just
skills of being ready to support others or be supported.
Moon in detriment. A tendency to moodiness... In this sense, it is all about sensitivity, the emotional field
of this stream. ...that may lead to carelessness.
In the white book: Sensitivity and ease fueled by acceptance by others. It is all very easy if somebody
accepts me. I can be there with them, but the resources, that is where the vigilance is. It is not about how
many friends you have. It is about how productive your relationships are in that sense. It is not about how
many people are in the tribe. If 99 % of them are on the dole, the tribe is starving. It is not just about
having the numbers in terms of people. This is the trial and error.
The other side is, The need to be wanted hampered by oversensitivity. This oversensitivity is an enormous
theme in this stream. It always has to do with resources. These people only become oversensitive when
there are not enough resources for them. This is the other side of this line. It does not matter how many
people are around. One becomes very sensitive, oversensitive as a potential, when the resources are not
adequate for the need being offered. "Here I am. I am offering my support. Where are the resources? I
give my support to you and you all have access to it." Then they get oversensitive: "What about me? You
left me out? Am I in this bargain? Don't I get my cut?" This is the third line. It has to learn that it is not
about numbers.
The tribe is always stuck in numbers, this mundane aspect of being able to make more money for your
work. It is not about how many people are there. It is the value inherent in the relationship. Is everybody
in the tribe productive? Is the tribe truly interdependent or do we have a tribe that is based on
dependency? Two people work and one person takes a ride. What kind of a tribe is that? The third line is
saying, "Heyl You have to learn to see that not everybody is going to pull their weight." That is why there
is so much flirting in the 19, trying to see who really does pull their weight, who really can carry through
the vigilance and bring it to fulfillment.
19.4 The Team Player
When you come to the fourth line in the upper trigram, you really get to clearly see the resonance from
the first line. The first line was about interdependency, or dependency. When you come to the resonance
in the fourth line, you come to the power of single-mindedness, this fixed externalization in the fourth
line. It is about The Team Player. Individual approach which attracts and accepts cooperation.
Mars exalted and at its best; there is no other place in the Rave I'Ching that has such a comment on a
planet. The power and energy for outward activity, and the ability to accept others as long as they can
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keep up. A driving force that can benefit the whole group. In the white book: The energy to seek out and
exalt in the company of others. These are driving forces. "Where will we get those resources$ Come on.
Let's do it." They are the ones that can bring this enormous energy to work as an interdependent energy.
They bring their own, as long as everybody can keep up.
When you come to the other side, you get to see what happens because it is Venus in detriment. Attractive
and cooperative, but a tendency to dissatisfaction with the contribution of others. "They are dependent on
me." Not the first line that says, "I am dependent on them." This is the other way around. "They are
dependent on me and I don't want them to be dependent on me." That is when they become sensitive.
A sensitivity energized by the limitation of others. "Why should I do all the work? I don't mind working
and doing my share, but are you doing yours?" These people are very fixed. If you go to school with this
kind of person and you get a summer job with them, the last thing you want to do is to work with them.
They work hard all the time. They put in eight hours of hard work and the other person is wondering
whether they are all right. "Don't work so fast. I want to have a cigarette. I want to have a rest to
meditate." So, what happens is that they feel like everybody is being dependent on them and they have to
carry everybody's weight.
19.5 Sacrifice
The fifth line, the line of universalization, is how everybody else sees the hexagram, or how they project
onto the hexagram. This is the line of the dead. Think about what that is like: You are a commander in the
fields and you have to take some hill away from the enemy. There are only two members of your troop
that are going to stand out to you automatically: the 19.2 and the 19.5. The 19.2 will be of service because
they are projecting out, "I will go and do it." But you also know about the 19.2 that there is a limit to what
they will do because they are expecting a resource in return. Therefore, they will do only so much and go
no further. The 19.5 is a bargain for a commander because a 19.5 is quite ready not only to be of service,
but to sacrifice themselves in that service. And in the larger context of the movie, they do not get any
resources for it other than a medal that is placed on their grave. In other words, they are quite willing to
sacrifice themselves without any need for resource in return, and remember, that is not their true nature.
That is what is projected on them.
The projected field wants to see the 19th hexagram, this need, as a readiness to sacrifice. "Why should I
pay you? Do it for the benefit of the tribe. Why do you need resources? Make a sacrifice. Take a day off a
week and work for the state for nothing." You have countries in our century that have done that. Everyone
has to take a day off. At least it is not three days a week to build the pyramids but nonetheless, the
sacrifice is inherent here. When you see somebody with a 19.5, there is a Christ complex at work in there.
This sacrifice for the higher good is projected on them. "This one will make the sacrifice. This one will
bleed for the cause. This one will die." This is projected on them. Given the right principle, they will.
The need to limit personal potential in order to achieve a larger goal. "I will die so that others may live.
I'll die on this cross, so all of you can be redeemed for your sins." This is the basic theme. It goes back to
the sacrifice of children. When they were going to sacrifice children for the fertility festival in the
springtime, the 19.5's were sacrificed, and all spotted by the 49.5. I am a 49.5. I know them when I see
them. "This one over there can be sacrificed," and the 19.5 will come forward and say "yes."
The Mayan culture had ritual sacrifices. Most of the time, those sacrificed were criminals and border
tribes but they had certain numbers to be sacrificed because mathematics was very important. There were
times when there were not enough numbers to fill the list of those that had to be sacrificed, and there were
people who would come forward and agree to be sacrificed. "I have to make a sacrifice for the greater
good because, if I don't die, the tribe will have a problem and the magic of the tribe will die."
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The Earth exalted. The self-restraint fundamental to such a nature. If you will sacrifice, you have to be
very clear about what kind of sacrifice you want to make. Fifth lines have great opportunities in life
because they are projected on. They are recognized for an inherent trait within them. In this case, these
people can make enormous sacrifices for the societies around them and get almost no return on that. They
are part of what keeps the tribe alive and, in our time, this energy is very important. We expect sacrifice.
Think about how millions and millions of people in this century walked off and sacrificed their lives in
wars. "I will fight communism. I will sacrifice my life."
Jupiter in detriment. A tendency in sacrifice to condescend. "I have to do it for them because they cannot
do it themselves. After all, they can never hang on the cross long enough."
Sacrifice can fuel a lack of sensitivity. Those who are constantly asked to sacrifice, because that is the
projection, become desensitized after a while due to the role that they have to play. One of the most
important things for anybody who carries the energy of the 19.5 is to recognize that this sacrifice is
always going to be essential but only for the correct principle. This is a dilemma because the principle is
an emotional principle that moves in a wave. This is not an easy thing. We are ready to sacrifice one
moment to spare ourselves from Catholics, or the Nazis, and the next moment, they are suddenly
acceptable. One has to be careful about the principles one is ready to sacrifice for. That is a key here.
There is no choice. You can only care in the sense of being aware of what it is. All mammals have the
19th gate. They will make those sacrifices and die. They do that quite regularly; it is built in. It is built
into us, too. We exalt it and take it to another level because we take it to a higher principle. We bring in
the emotional field and the potential for Spirit.
There will be a time in which this sacrifice will be very different, like all things. The moment that the
nature of the emotional system changes, we will change the nature of sacrifice because who decides about
who gets sacrificed or not is the 49th gate which operates in an emotional wave and is not aware.
Therefore, those sacrifices are unusually cruel and meaningless. Stalin says, "Kill all the Gulags." So you
go into the Ukraine and kill millions of people and you take all of the crop for four years in a row and sell
it on the foreign market. Thus, they starve to death. For what? This is when the principles of the 49 go
haywire because they are being ruled by an emotional wave and there is no awareness and no spirit
consciousness.
Sacrifice in our times is still something that can be very sad. It can also be beautiful because we glorify it.
Our tribes are built on our martyrs. Wherever you go, there is somebody who has done something for the
state, the last offender of the wall. We consider these people heroes at the highest level because they were
ready to sacrifice for the benefit of others. That is what we expect from them. What they are is either
interdependent, or dependent.
19.6 The Recluse
One of the extraordinary incarnation crosses in the wheel is called the Cross of the Four Ways. The Cross
of the Four Ways is comprised of the four hexagrams that are especially about a way, and they form a
perfect cross in the zodiac. The 19th hexagram, Approach, is directly opposite the 33rd hexagram, which
is called Retreat and, exactly at a quarter angle from that, you get the 24th hexagram in Taurus, which is
the gate of Return. Exactly opposite that, you have the 44th hexagram, Coming to Meet. These are the
four ways of the world: Approach, Retreat, Coming to Meet and Return. So when you are dealing with
the 19th gate, you are dealing with something very deep inside of you because it is one of the ways. This
way is a deep recognition for the need for resources and there are all kinds of resources.
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When we get to the sixth line, we get to the transition. We know that all our religious experience begins in
the 19th gate. It is the gate of animism and animal sacrifice. It is the gate of child sacrifice. It is where
ideals are built. This is the whole beginning of that process and its culmination is The Recluse.
This sixth line of the Recluse is trying to see the whole process. It does not want to engage unless it has
that kind of assurance that the whole process is possible. The whole process of the tribe is that the
resources have to be enough to allow the tribe to flourish and grow and to develop a civilization, a
successful thriving community, where everybody has the resources that are necessary and it all gets to
manifest out of the throat. This is not an easy business that starts in the 19th gate.
The overview line: The avoidance of contact in general but not exclusively. "1 don't want to be
interdependent with you. I don't want to be dependent on you. I don't want you to be dependent on me
because I don't think that any of this will be worthwhile. Why should I give up all this energy when I do
not get the resources that I know are necessary?" Someone says, "Why don't we establish an ashram?"
The recluse says, "Excuse me. I am going away because I don't think that it will be possible that you'll
really bring in the resources to maintain this, to build a culture."
Jupiter exalted. The fool on the hill. The sage that, if you can find him, will talk to you. These were the
main spiritual figures in the world. These were the crazy ones, the ones that separated themselves and, at
the same time, the tribe found them fascinating because the tribe also needs that resource.
Please understand that the recluse is not quite the same as a hermit. A hermit is somebody where people
really know where they are. The recluse or the sulking child can be anywhere; you have to look for them.
It is part of their way to have proven that they are really needed. "I hear that there is a Master in the
mountain somewhere, but I don't know where. " That is their way of knowing that you really need them, if
you go looking for them. The sulking child does not simply just go to its room. It goes out and hides
somewhere outside and you really have to find them to prove that you need them.
In the white book: The energy which generally fuels avoidance. "Well, I don't want to support that. I don't
want to get involved in that because I don't think that it will ever get to where it must." What happens is
that these recluses, these sages, eventually get sought out. The tribe wants access to what they have. The
tribe is interested in their resources. The tribe wants them to make a commitment.
The other side of this: Oversensitivity to rejection that fuels avoidance. This is Mars in detriment. The
sulking child. The self-imposed exile that will only end when it attracts appropriate and soothing reaction.
Of all the lines of the 19, this is the only line in which the 19 is totally in control. The 19 needs to be
wanted but the 19.6 will not flirt, though the 1 through 5 will. The 19.6 generally has a fuel which says:
"Avoid all that. Don't get their attention." When somebody comes to the fool on the hill, to the sage or to
the sulking child in its room, they are convinced that they are actually needed. "You climbed all the way
up this mountain up to see me?V 'Yes, Master." "You finally come into my room to see what I mean, to
see why I am so upset?"
There is a great deal of power in this 19.6 by not bringing the classic 19 energy and offering it. Remember
that the projected field is sacrifice. You are supposed to be there to sacrifice. The 19.6 does not care.
"Come and find me, if you really need me. And if you show me that you really need me, maybe, if you
are lucky and it is a nice day, I will offer you my energy and support."
To so many people who climb that mountain and get to the Master and ask him what they should do, he
answers, "You can go back down now." If you finally go into the room of the sulking child, it says: "Get
out." It is not enough to be needed. Again, the sixth line is always asking for something much more. So
the Master on the hill will wait for the right question, that not only is it really going to be needed, but that
Page 7
need is legitimate, and if it can hear the legitimacy of that, it can support that. The sulking child has to
feel the real need, not simply the tribe trying to discipline the child so that it does not miss for aid. That it
is not forced to come back out. It has to be a real need to resolve whatever it is.
It is very important to see that in the whole 19th gate lie so many things that have dominated our lives. It
is a core fuel: this need for food, the need for how we can share the food and be interdependent in our
process. All the fundamental rules for whether we will support each other or not, the amount of service
and sacrifice that is demanded by any tribal relationship, all of that in the 19 carries a great deal of weight
in the world. We are going through a process of having this energy vitalized. We have a considerable
transit movement through the gates we are talking about, to see how important it is that the resources are
there.
The one thing that is clear to me about the nature of the world is that, unless you satisfy the 19 as a
universal theme that is everywhere, there will never be peace. The 19 must be satisfied. The resources
must be there and it must be fair. It must be clean and interdependent. That will take a long time for the
emotional system to change so that we can break through the motor, and then we can begin to see that the
nature of community lies in its spirit. The spirit is the whole thing.
There are different kinds of sages: there is the sage who tells you, "You can go down the mountain but if
you want, you can come back." Each time you come up the mountain, he tells you to go back down.
Eventually, they have a satori climbing the mountain one day. They never get to the top and they never
have to.
One last spiritual note on that. What the recluse says when you find them is, "I don't need you." The
whole thing about this need for resources is that none of these people can have a life unless they have the
resources. There are always those who say, "I don't need to have you in my life in order to have a life. I
don't need to support the tribe in order to get the resources. The resources are everywhere." This is
something very important because without this force, the whole thing that drives the tribe will only be
limited to the material plane, only to that materialism that ultimately finds its expression in the 45/21.
What lies here is something deeper that says, "Wait a minute. Is it really all about need? Is it only about
need? There must be something else." There is something else: individual awakening in the 25/51. This is
the natural way for this sixth line. The sixth line knows that there is something else other than the material
plane.
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HEXAGRAM 20 CONTEMPLATION
In many ways, we have here the most complex hexagram in the throat process because the 20th hexagram
is not simply looking to the potential of a harmonic gate. It is part of the Integration network. It is looking
at three different gates. It represents the expression of the individual capacity to survive.
It is the voice that says, "I know I am," or "I know I am now," and all the configurations that come with
the various connections in Integration. This 20th gate is the only so-called existential gate. Existential
means that it operates in the present.
Above the lines it says: Recognition and awareness in the now which transforms understanding into right
action. This is awareness in the now, so there is a great deal of confusion about this statement,
'recognition and awareness'. This is not an awareness gate, so do not get carried away by that. This is a
mechanical gate that brings you into the now. It is a mechanical gate that has direct access to awareness,
to the 57th gate in the splenic system and the potential for awareness, in that sense. What is important
about this is that this represents a peripheral mechanic in which the present is recognized. This is not a
force like the collective force that is either projecting into the future or looking at the past. This is
something that is occupied entirely in the present.
20.1 Superficiality
The first line gives you the foundation. It is called Superficiality. Many people have problems with this
first line. A reliance on shallowness. If you own a cat, it is easy to understand. The cat is sitting there in
the now and is really lbakimg disinterested in everything.. It seems to be totally disinterested but it is not.
It is being very superficial on the surface. It looks very shallow at what it is; doing but all of its antennae
are ready and alert- for anything,, at any moment. This is not about being in the now and walking around,
trying to swallow everything. This is the recognition that you are always in the now and you can go, about
the business of your life because there is this force inside of you that will make contact with the
periphery.
Venus exalted. The raising of superficiality to an art form. The sloganeer. In terms of the white, book:
Superficial expression as an art form. These people are very aware of what is happening one the.
mundane plane! around them. That is their superficiality. They are very dear about what is going on in the
world around them because the primary nature of this is to keep them alive. So they are aware of what is
going on around them but if you have a conversation with them,, iit will be very superficial.. It is like "Do
you notice the change in the!weather$'iust a little while ago, there was ai change in the pressure." They
talk about the kinds of things that they are! aware of in the present, and they-will seem very superficial.
They are not. Don't confuse the way in which these peoplb project out their " 1 know" as. of they are really
only on the surface. They are not.. There is; a great deal going on underneath.
The Moon in detriment. The superficial expression of the personality. In the white book: The expression
of the superficial personality. These people look like only beings on the surface and anybody who knows
these people all say the same thing: "They are very superficial." I want to tell you something. You put
these people in a situation of life and death and they are anything but superficial. They are aware in the
now. They have this mechanical capacity in the now to respond to what is there in the now. But on the
surface, they are on the surface almost all of the time other than in those moments of threat. That is the
nature of being in the now. There is nothing to do except in the moment of threat. To respond and to be
able to protect yourself in order to survive is the capacity in this gate.
20.2 The Dogmatist
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We get to the line of projection. These people are projecting out their existential potential. They are
projecting out that they know who they are. "I know I am," or "I know I am now," is the voice. This line
is called The Dogmatist. Restrictive and intentionally limited understanding. These are people in the now
but what they are projecting out in the now is a narrow field. They see certain things in the now but they
do not see everything in the now because they do not have this entire periphery. Due to that, they can be
very dogmatic about that now and that view that they have. 'Restrictive and intentionally limited
understanding' is limited perspective in that sense.
Venus exalted. The limitation, if personal and exclusive, is less negative through ascetic withdrawal. In
the white book: A restrictive awareness in the now. What happens to these people is that they are going to
bang into a lot of difficulty because they are individual, after all. Individuals always attract attention and
individuals have to explain themselves. They have this narrow view. What happens to them is that other
people try to bring them out into the periphery and they are very uncomfortable and back away. They
back away because they are only interested in those people that are interested in their dogmatic view
because that is what they need. They need people who pay attention to that.
Moon in detriment. The power to lead others down a narrow path. Everybody that carries the 20 carries
with them the possibility to lead people in their survival process. These are people that can guide you
down a path but it is a very specific path. It is very narrow. By the way, narrow is not a pejorative.
Narrow is not a bad word. To be led down a narrow path: if you have somebody who is teaching you how
to be a neurophysiologist, you don't want somebody who teaches you Jimi Hendrix every half hour. You
want this narrow path so that you can go down that road and learn from that.
The gift through expression of leading others down a narrow path. "I know right now what is good for
you. " Again, they may or may not. They may really know what is going on in the now or not because they
can be a paper tiger. It is all a projection going out. Their favorite expression is, "My way or the
highway".
20.3 Self-awareness
We are dealing with an individual process here, so we are not dealing with the collective process. We are
not dealing with anything other than this deep empowerment to be individual. In the 12.3, there was this
potential for exaggerated self-hatred due to the trial and error process. Here we have Self-awareness.
These are people who are only conscious of themselves in the now. They are always seeing their own
process going on, so they are very self conscious. They are really there, existentially watching their
movie. Out of that can come great wisdom. If you really watch yourself, you see what happens to you,
and what happens to you is your life. It is something very valuable.
Understanding derived horn analysis of personal actions and effects. The proper attunement and
development of the personality through self -consciousness. On the other side, we have: Self-
consciousness in the extreme that hampers development. People are so concerned with what they are
doing in the now that they don't function properly anymore. This is the other side. They are so concerned
about what is going on around them in the now that they literally don't have the ability to maintain their
individuality or individual integrity in those situations.
The expression of self-conscious awareness in the now; or The expression of self-consciousness in the
extreme. These people are very uncomfortable. You don't see yourself. After all, the individual is
projecting out from inside of them, just like everybody else. What they are watching is the wave effect
between themselves and the world. In doing so, individuals discover that most of the world does not want
to have anything to do with them because they are strangers by their very nature.
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So there is this inherent self -consciousness in all individuals. All individuality carries within it this self-
consciousness, this concern that the world does not pay any attention, or the world will not notice you, or
you are not able to give an explanation. These people can carry this to the extreme, constantly watching,
constantly being on the alert in the now. I had one person with the 20.3 who told me, "I don't like what I
see". There is nothing to do because this is a mechanic. I told him, "If you don't see what you like, also
see there is nothing you can do about that. Anybody that is here in the now gets to see everything. " It is
not that this makes life horrible.
The trial and error in this process is that, while you are watching your own movie, you learn so many
things because it does not always work. Every time you are trying to watch yourself, your whole self-
analysis is going to come out of interaction with others.
We are talking about the 20th gate alone. We are not talking about it being connected. It is always looking
to the other side, yet it does not know that it is there, so it will always bump into it. When they meet
somebody who rejects them because they are individual, they watch that in the movie. They take all that
on themselves. They become uncomfortable. "Why didn't that work? Why was I made so
uncomfortable?" and that restricts them the next time, or it adds to their experience and they learn to
recognize who they can be "I am in the now" with. That is part of their learning process. It is a feedback
process and you don't know it because you are not always connected to the rest of it.
20.4 Application
Here in the upper trigram, we are dealing with externalization. We are dealing with this one-track-
process. We are also dealing with the nature of opportunity and this gate is going to meet the 10.4, the
potential for awakening. That potential lies in recognizing the right opportunity.
This line is called Application. Recognition and awareness that can only be transformed into action in
cooperation with those who have the ability to act upon understanding. This is one of the keys to pure
individuality. The pure individual says, "I know I can integrate with you only if you can follow my
knowing. If you cannot understand my explanation, this is not going to work." This is the whole thing
about the knower. The knower can have a wonderful relationship with those that can grasp the
explanation of the knowing. This is the nature of what application is about.
Again, here we have a gate in the throat that is open to all kinds of things and, in and of itself, it is still
limited. The fourth line knows that there is a 57th gate that has the awareness, so it can say, "I know I am
now". It knows that the 34th gate is there with its energy so it says, "I know I am doing now." When the
10th gate is there, it can say, "I know what I am doing for myself now." Built into that mechanic is the
recognition that all of those forces are there in various combinations, waiting.
This application has two sides. The Jupiter side: The teacher whose students transcend him/her, and the
Mercury side: The tendency to prefer theory to application. They are not very different because this is the
knower that says, "I know but I need you to recognize that knowing and if you do so, it is a value for you.
I may even give you enough value as a base so that you can transcend me, or that person, as a teacher."
In the white book: Where the expression of awareness can only be turned into action through others. The
teacher; or The expression of awareness as theory with little interest in its application. Well, it is not
important for that knower who does not have his own energy. I know many people with the fourth line
detriment; they are people who know things in the now and have all kinds of theories that have come out
of that recognition in the now. But they don't care what anybody does with it. The exalted has the same
experience, experiencing things in the now, knowing something about that and immediately wanting to be
able to empower others with that knowledge. Both of these sides of the line are teachers. The exalted
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teacher always gets exactly the right students, and the detriment teacher gets the students that they know
can't really grasp it and who will never be able to transcend them. So, they are just happy enough to offer
the theory.
20.5 Realism
The fifth line is called Realism. This is a line of universalization. It is a line that gets projected on, and it
is a very difficult line. Everybody is projecting on this line that these people know. Everybody is
projecting on them that they are the ones that know what is really going on in the now. They may or may
not.
The first thing that the fifth line of the 20 knows is that Contemplation, in and of itself, is no guarantee of
success. It is not enough to be existential. If you don't have any power, what will you do with what you
recognize in the now? If you don't have any awareness, what can you make of it? And if you don't have
any identity, who are you in the now? These are three other gates that the 20 points towards. The fifth line
recognizes, because it is deeply aware, that there is the other side. They know that all three of those gates
are out there and know that being in the now is not enough. You can be in the now. You can stand there
and say, "Oh, there is a car coming towards me," but if you don't have a motor, you will die. It is not
going to help you to be conscious of that in the now. It does not help you to be existential if you can't get
out of the way.
The fifth line understands the cold, hard reality of what life is and there is nobody else in this life that you
are going to meet that will point to life and show you all of its beauty and all of its ugliness. That is what
they see. They see the reality of what things are. This is not necessarily pleasing.
Saturn exalted. Where concentration on details results in a perfected form. Perfected form is part of the
whole Integration process. These people recognize after a while that it is not enough to be existential. "I
have to find out where all these other sources of energy and power and awareness are so that I can access
them in order to get to the perfected form of survival. "
Uranus in detriment. Where reality creates dissatisfaction and adds to instability. Uranus stands for
suddenness and unexpectedness. These are people that walk out of their house in the morning and they
see everything that is ugly. They see the garbage that was not put in the garbage can. They see the drunk
that is sitting in the doorway. They see the rust eating away at the bottom of a car. They see what needs to
be repaired. They see the grayness in people's faces, the coldness in their eyes. They get the whole movie
with one breath. It is a real gift that these people have. But, unless they are connected to awareness, unless
they are connected to the motor, unless they are connected to the identity, they are deeply uncomfortable
with this capacity to see the world as it is. They are not believers. These are not abstract people. They
don't have any faith. They are not logical people trying to find a pattern and project into the future. They
just look around and see what they see.
The success of expressing awareness through detail; or The expression of awareness in the now through
dissatisfaction with the reality one sees. These people sound like whiners but they are not. They really do
see what is ugly. For them, that is quite a burden in their life because it is very hard for them unless they
are integrated to the rest of this Integration system. It is hard for them to see why life is worth surviving.
20.6 Wisdom
Like all sixth lines, there is something else that is at work here. This line is called Wisdom.
Contemplation which results in the ability to apply understanding. That may or may not be the case.
Page 4 □
This is a deeply individual line. Any individual line says, "I am now." I have this line and I have the
Venus exalted, so I am very fortunate in that. This line does not care about the world and this line can be
misread that way. I certainly never cared about the world, nor did I ever have the idea for even a fraction
of a moment that what I was going through in the now could be of value to anybody. This is typical of the
sixth line. What is there for me to say to the collective if I don't know anything myself? And all knowers
are like that. They know things and they don't know things and they go through their life.
This line is about the individual staying with their individual process. There is within it The ability to
transform individual awareness for general application and understanding. Don't stand in line and wait for
that. The fact that there is the ability does not mean, like all sixth lines, that that is going to come out, and
very often that wisdom looks very dumb.
This is one of the jokes about all of these things because these people are not necessarily going to put that
energy out on you and take their individual experience and try to turn that into a direction for you. It is
very difficult for the individual to do that. They have to know; they have to be able to explain it. They
have to have those that are willing to listen and, ultimately, those that can actualize it before there is any
certainty in any of that. Venus exalted. The establishment for the benefit of society, values, ideals and
their patterns, and how they can be understood and applied.
The Mercury in detriment is not any different. It is the theoretical. The same as above, but motivated by
the self satisfying mental challenge rather than altruism. These are very individual people living out a
very individual process. Because there is no such thing as personal karma, these people can be pulled into
the needs of others and, if they live long enough and their existential process has been broad enough, they
may be able to make a contribution to the totality. But all sixth lines wait for some kind of force that
projects that on them. I got that in a very clear way in my confrontation with the Voice. I had to deal with
something that imposed upon me something that was not there naturally. The mutation was brought to
me. Otherwise, none of that stuff would have had any value. It is true for all sixth lines.
I am not saying that you can't experience a sixth line unless you have some kind of science fiction event.
That is not true. What I'm saying is that there are only very special circumstances in your life that are
going to bring out the potential of any sixth line. When you have children (that is my concern) that have a
lot of sixth lines, or they have a Sun/Earth configuration that is in the sixth line, you have to recognize
that you may never see their potential. You can never allow these children to feel uncomfortable because
of that. The reality is that they are gifted, but it is up to life whether or not that gift has any real value.
Wye all have special attributes, but it is a question of what life demands and not what we have. So many
people are deeply frustrated because what they have they want to push out into the world, but if the world
is not ready for it and the world doesn't want it, the world will not take it. This is just the way things
work. All sixth lines, in that sense, are waiting for a sign from the gods, whatever that sign happens to be.
It does not have to be spiritual or mystical. It can be a car accident. It can be all kinds of things that
trigger the potential that lies inside all of these sixth lines.
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HEXAGRAM 21 BITING THROUGH
We come to a gate that has enormous significance in our lives. It is a gate that often creates a lot of
problems because it is the only gate that is designed to be a controlling gate. It can only be a controlling
gate because it has the most powerful ego.
The fact that it is a controlling gate, the fact that it is a powerful ego is legitimate. In other words, this
controlling force is necessary in order to be able to serve and protect the tribe. The 21 is here to serve the
community. It is here to establish for the community what is viable and what works. It is here to make
sure that the community has what it needs: the food and shelter that it needs and the work that it needs.
It is here to make sure that there is reward for those efforts, that society not only works but has time for
leisure. In other words, it is there to look after the needs of humanity living together on the material plane.
It is the channel of Materialism. Because the 21 is a control gate, it is also very difficult for people and
often extremely difficult for the 21's themselves.
Above the lines it says: The justified and necessary use of power in overcoming deliberate and persistent
interference. 'The justified and necessary use of power...' These are very strong words. You will not hear
that kind of language in any other gate, '...in overcoming deliberate and persistent interference.' In other
words, it is not there to overcome unintentional interference. It is not there to overcome interference that
is not non-persistent.
But it is there to be in control. It is justified in the use of its power. This is the ego that must strike out.
That is why it is an ego that is very uncomfortable for those who have it and those who have to
experience it.
The way in which a 21 operates has to do with the nature of their design. An undefined heart center with
the 21 is very different from a defined one. A 21 with a defined heart center is very different as a
generator, a manifestor or a projector. In other words, there are a lot of complexities in how the gate
actually can operate.
If you have the 21 and you are a projector, people in your life have to recognize that you have to be in
control. Otherwise, you are not meeting the right people. If you are a generator with the 21, you can only
take control when somebody asks you and you respond to it. If you are a 21 that is a manifestor, you have
to ask their permission before you control them. If you are a 21 in an undefined heart center, all you can
do is wait to be offered control because the moment that you claim control, you will break your heart.
This is where the heart sits. Everybody who has the 21 who is not allowed to exercise their power to be in
control, those people in their lives who do not allow that are killing them, literally. This is a deeply
misunderstood hexagram. The 21 has a right to be in control. It has a justified and proper right to be in
control, but depending on the design, the control will be allowed and will come out in different ways. The
moment it is there, the 21 has to be trusted and allowed to do its job of serving the community. This is an
ego that truly will serve the community as long as it is recognized in its power.
NOTE: The 21 st gate has four different lines that are only singularities now because of the phenomenon
that Neptune and Pluto are not active in our lifetimes. (Please see the section on Outer Planet Transits in
the Glossary in Volume 2 copied below.)
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OUTER PLANET TRANSITS
Detriments and Exaltations Affected by Pluto and Neptune
Two outer planets, Neptune and Pluto, have cycles that greatly exceed the span of a single human life.
Neptune's cycle around the wheel requires approximately 165 years and Pluto's cycle is about 284 years.
Consequently, depending upon the position of these planets in their transit around the wheel,
periodically, the exalted or the detriment of certain lines that are fixed by these planets may be inactive,
i.e. not present in the world in the human population. This means that, at any given time, these particular
aspects of design may or may not be present, genetically in the world and therefore, these qualities are
not accessible to human beings until the planet re-activates that gate or its harmonic.
Something to keep in mind, also, is that the period of time that these detriments or exaltations remain
inactive after there are no people alive carrying these activations will be shortened somewhat by Pluto or
Neptune's transit to the harmonic gate within the channel. How much shorter is determined by the
relative positions of the harmonic gates within the wheel.
For example, gates 25 and 51 that form the channel of Initiation are both positioned in Aries. Pluto has
not been in Aries, and therefore in either gate 25 or gate 51, since the beginning of the 19th century.
Thus, there has been no activation of the 25.3 in detriment, the 51.1 exalted or the 51.6 in detriment for a
very long time, and it will still be a number of years before Pluto re-enters Aries. With Neptune's absence
from the 25. 1 and Pluto from the 5 neither of the exaltations is active, which means that the whole
foundation for Initiation during this time has operated through the detriments.
At the time of this publication, Neptune is transiting Aquarius, having recently moved through the 41st
gate, activating the Al. 1, Reasonableness, in the exaltation and bringing that genetic material back out
into the world. Pluto is moving through Sagittarius, finishing its transit through the 5th gate and thereby
re-activating the qualities of the detriments of Inner Peace and Joy (the 5.2 and the 5.5) within our gene
pool. These qualities that have been absent genetically for so many years are now being carried by those
children born under these transits.
The following is a list of lines currently affected by Pluto or Neptune in which these lines have an aspect
that is not functioning as of now. When doing readings for clients, when you get to these lines, you can
only read the one aspect of the line, the exaltation or the detriment, that is still operating.
3.3 Pluto in detriment.
3.6 Pluto in detriment.
21.2 Neptune in detriment. 21.3 Neptune exalted. 21.5 Pluto in detriment. 21.6 Pluto exalted. 22.4
Neptune exalted.
24.6 Pluto in detriment. (Pluto goes into 61 in 2010.)
25.1 Neptune exalted.
25.3 Pluto in detriment. 30.4 Pluto exalted. 30.5 Pluto exalted 30.3 Pluto exalted. 36.2 Neptune
exalted. 36.3 Pluto exalted. 36.4 Pluto exalted.
36.5 Pluto exalted.
41.6 Pluto in detriment.
49.2 Pluto in detriment. 49.3 Neptune exalted. 49.6 Neptune exalted.
51.1 Pluto exalted.
51.6 Pluto in detriment.
61.6 Pluto exalted. (Pluto will get there in the next 8 years.)
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21.1 Warning
All first lines speak for the nature of the hexagram. Warning is the basis of the 21 and its control. "Don't
interferel Attention." The use of force as a last resort. In other words, in the use of power to be in control,
the worst thing is to start with force first. I learned this many years ago as a teacher. In public teaching
institutions, there were always those teachers who can never, ever control their students. They will
threaten them. When that does not work, they will use force and the moment you use force, you cannot go
any further. The moment that I had a teacher that would strap and punish me, I knew that I had taken
them to their limitation. What else could they do? Kill me?
Warning. The use of force as a last resort. It does not say that you don't use force. If you keep on saying,
"Hey, look, this is what you have to do," and they still do not listen, then you can use force.
Mars exalted. The fierceness to be respected without recourse to action. This is an overview line. It takes
a long time to get that respect. It is not that you have it right away. This is a deeply painful gate to have if
you are a child. You are here to be in control but you are being dictated by your parents, your school, by
your siblings, by friends. What usually happens is that these people live with nothing but tension. The
cross of Tension is rooted in the polarity between the 21 and the 48. The 21st gate can bring an enormous
tension which becomes a strain on the heart, simply because these people are not allowed to be in control.
The Moon in detriment. An inherent peacefulness that all too often turns a necessary warning into a plea.
In the white book: The willpower and ego to ensure respect; or A lack of willpower that is forced to ask
for respect. These are the 21 's who say, "Look, please let me be in control. I know what I am doing.
Please stop interfering. Please." That is not a very powerful way of dealing with things. In that moment,
the 21 is asking for the other not to interfere when, in fact, they are here to insist that there is no
interference.
This is the great dilemma of the 21. That dilemma is written in the genetic continuity of the chart. The 21
in an undefined heart center is dependent on the other person as to whether they can bring out their
control or not and they may have to ask. When it is defined to the throat, it is a different process but
always, the dilemma for the 21 is to find a way to get the respect so that they are not interfered with. They
cannot get that until they learn how to control things. If you have a child with the 21, give them
responsibilities. Give them things that they control (their schedule or whatever) so they learn what it is to
be in control and they get respect for their ability to be in control of things.
21.2 Might is right
The second line is called Might is right and it has Neptune in detriment, which means that this side is not
operating in our time.
It is an overview line: The legitimacy of action in response to flagrant and persistent interference.
Remember, to be in control means that you don't deal with any kind of interference because it will show
that you are not really in control. This is the ego, after all. You release that control when you are
constantly being interfered with; that is the moment that you have to stop the interference.
Think about the second line, which does not know any of that. It does not even realize that it is being in
control. Because it does not have that realization (lower trigram, not transpersonal), it is simply in its own
thing and then somebody comes along and, because they can look in the window, they say, "These people
are being in control of that. I will interfere with that." Boy, do they get a surprise!
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What comes out immediately is Mars exalted; there is no detriment. Powerful and extreme reaction. Here,
the severest action will be the most successful. You see somebody sitting at a desk and they are doing
something. They are in control of what they are doing and somebody comes up to them and says, "You
really shouldn't." The legitimate rejection of interference on the material plane. This can be very shocking
to people.
21.3 Powerlessness
The third line is a line that is often totally misunderstood and misinterpreted. Whenever I meet 21.3's, I do
the best I can to correct them immediately about the nature of what this line is. Because of the keynote,
Powerlessness, there is a false assumption connected to this. This is not about being without power. This
is about the possibility of being powerless.
An overview line, trial and error: Where the just are condemned to a futile confrontation with superior
forces. This is the way logic works: if you break down what this sentence is actually saying, it says that
the just are condemned to a futile confrontation with superior forces, not with inferior forces. When
somebody has the 21.3, they can never ever work for somebody else. It is hard for 21's to work for
anybody else anyway and I always tell 21's the same thing: you have to be your own boss and if that
means that you have to work in a corporation, then you have a separate contract which states that you are
an outsider that is contracted in so you can be in control of your material life and not be dependent.
What happens to these people in their trial and error process is that, for example, they try to get into a
corporation and they get in at a lower level. These 21.3's go through hell with that because every step and
layer above them, every layer of management and control that is above them, is absolutely infuriating to
them because they can't win. They don't have the juice. They can't win. They are powerless. The moment
that you give a 21.3 a boss, they are powerless. This leads to a lot of difficulties.
There is an advantage to that. The Neptunian field is not at work. The advantage is because this exalted is
Defeat as a survivable humiliation, often acceptable through the abuse of drugs and alcohol. This is not
active, what is active is: Total withdrawal. Think about what that means in our society.
In the white book you can see that it is: A lack of will for the material path in order to protect the ego.
These are people that do not want to work, do not want to leave school. These are people that do not want
to have a boss, that want to reject the whole material plane because, in their life, it is impossible to have
somebody controlling them and telling them what to do. So, when you meet a 21.3 and you are dealing
with this energy, you must tell them that there is only one thing that can help them: never, ever have a
boss.
Again, the dilemma of being an ego-child: ego children, like emotional children, have enormous problems
in their early years because they have to deal with authority. Particularly, 21 children constantly have to
deal with authority. A 21.3 child can be made to feel like they have no power at all and that futility can be
a deep pain in their life and they will just withdraw. They will just hide so that they do not have to listen
to somebody controlling them.
It is very important to recognize that 21 children have to be treated with respect. They have to. They have
to be given their opportunity to show that they are capable of being in control even when they are very
young, however you work that out because, otherwise, this powerlessness is conditioning them from the
very start and they never get to flower at all.
So many 21.3's that I meet are so angry at the world, so uncomfortable with having been directed all of
their lives. For them it is so easy: do not have a boss. Do not have a boss in your relationships; do not
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have a boss at work. Do not have a superior force in your life, unless you are a masochist and you love to
be powerless. By the way, the punks came with this genetic theme.
Regarding their approach to the material plane: this line does not mean that the 21.3 has to withdraw.
Remember the overview of the line which says that the futile confrontation is only with superior forces.
There is no need to withdraw if they are not dealing with superior forces. The moment they go out and try
to deal with superior forces, automatically, all 21.3's will withdraw. They will have a very hard time on
the material plane.
The advantage we can give them in letting them know what that line means for them is to understand that
if they give up trying to work for somebody (again that takes ego courage), then that withdrawal is not
active for them. It will only be active if they meet a superior force because then they will be in a futile
position.
21.4 Strategy
When you come to the upper trigram, particularly in the 21st gate, you are dealing with something very
different: the capacity to bring control to the transpersonal experience. The fourth and fifth lines are
extremely well equipped in the 21 to be able to control what they have to control, which is manifestation.
Everything about the tribe is desperate to get to the throat. For the tribe, there is only one way: the 21/45.
The throat itself is dependent on having that ego do the work, do the serving. The only way the throat gets
that is by protecting the 21.21's seek out their protectors because they need to find access to
manifestation, and that is their gift. Their gift is that they have the ability to transpersonally see how to get
things manifested. 21.4's and 21.5's make very powerful leaders, good presidents of companies. The
fourth line is called Strategy.
Overview line: Careful appraisal of opposing forces to establish a proper response. This is not simply
recognizing that one has the capacity to be in control and the ego that says, "I have to be in control." This
is an ego that says, "Wait a second. How do I exercise my control?" In other words, this is an aspect that
works the strategy for getting to manifestation. You have to control some people tightly if you are a 21.
Some others have to be given space. It varies. The question of what kind of control to use, who to control
and when to control, becomes a transpersonal strategy.
We have Jupiter exalted. Success in action through clarity, which means control as the result of
investigation: looking at things and seeing how they can be done. But remember, this is a one-tracked
process, so strategy is everything. These are very strategic people and they are often accused of being
deeply manipulative because they know how to control. Because they are in control-positions, people
rarely accuse them of that because they tend to be dependent on their manipulation to have what they
need in this life.
Earth in detriment. A tendency, when in the right, to misjudge the power of one's opponents. This is
always a dilemma for the ego: just because it is right does not mean that it is going to work. Here in the
fourth line, just because you have the right strategy does not mean that it is going to work. There are a lot
of businesses everywhere in the world that design strategies every year of how they will make millions.
Yes, strategies are nice, but they do not always work.
In the white book: The ego to succeed on the material plane and the instinct to use willpower effectively
in response to conditions. This is the gift of being able to see where you use your control. The Earth
detriment. The drive when in the right to follow one's ego rather than one's instincts. This is the ego
saying, "This is my strategy. I made it up and I will not give it up. It will work," even though you know
that it will crash.
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The 'opposing forces' are forces which interfere. In this line, it does not matter whether they are inferior or
superior. Only the third line is particularly about superior forces. The third line is the pathway that leads
to wisdom. For any 2 1, the third line is really saying: look, if you really understand that you do not have
to be powerless, you become the superior force. That is where the real wisdom of the 21 lies, when it
recognizes that it is the superior force. The moment a 21 recognizes this, it does not have to claim it
anymore. It will get the natural respect that is due because it does recognize that it is the superior force.
21.5 Objectivity
This is a classic fifth line and even more so because of the impact of not having Pluto being active, so
there is no detriment in this particular line in our time. All fifth lines get projected on. They get projected
on because that projection is the desire, the need of passion of the totality to have that kind of a role
displayed out of that hexagram. So, society as a whole is looking to the 21.5 and saying, "They should be
in control." It is projected on them positively and negatively that they should be in control. Obviously,
like any fifth line, they can take that opportunity. If someone projects on you that you are in control, if
you take control and the result is positive, then control is given to you and you get the respect that is due.
Here we have an overview line. The use of force must be based on impartiality and not emotionally
motivated. When you read a line that says it must be impartial and not based on emotions, you know that,
in the learning process, it is very much partial and very much emotional until it finally learns how to use
power properly. Remember, it is an ongoing process.
I have a very powerful ego and it is the only motor in my design, so I manifest out of the power of the
ego. The one thing that I know about the ego is its inherent immaturity. The ego takes a very long time to
grow up because the rest of what it meets in the world is trying to reduce its power rather than to nurture
it.
The whole thing about the nature of this fifth line is that objectivity is what the totality wants from its
controllers. They want its controllers to be impartial. They don't want them to be motivated by
relationships or because they owe somebody something. They want to make sure that it is not emotional.
Just because somebody does not like you for what you did does not mean that they will throw you out
when, in fact, you may be of value and may be doing your work. We want our controlling agents to be
impartial and non-emotional.
As a learning curve, the fifth line will be both partially prejudiced and emotional and it learns by the price
it pays. The moment that it is not objective in its control, it will create all kinds of resistance from other
forces. "I will not let you control me because you do not control fairly. You don't control Johnny as much
as you control me." They lose the respect that way and, in order for them to gain that back, it iss an
objective process that has to be at work.
Here you have Jupiter exalted. A principled and legal character that ensures objectivity. Those principles
have to come by. One has to learn how to use power. Because power does not belong to us, it is
something you have to learn to work with, to learn how to use.
In the white book: The balanced ego... (But it will start off imbalanced, please understand that.l ...whose
willpower is applied objectively. We very much need these people in the world and, because this is a time
that we do not have Pluto (here, we have a whole generation, day by day, year by year for many years
now, that is coming into the world with the possibility of being purely objective, as our controlling
agents. *The whole world is controlled by 21's. That is part olf the global vibrdtion.'llhat is part of the role
of the 21. Let's do our best-to nurture the 211.5s. If you project onto the 21.5 child that It has to be in
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control, make sure that you teach that dhild the in' portance -of being impartial and nonersotional in its
control, in its use of power, because ultimately, these are the beings that are going to apply those controls
to the rest of the world.
When you think about it, all the 110th gates together condition our behavior iim'the'world. All the 2nd
gates together condition our direction in the world. All the 21st gates condition whether or not our
societies-and cultures are going to operate properly. It is essential for us that we learn to recognize these
qualities in our children and to see very dearly that 21 children must be nurtured so that they end up being
productive controlling agents rather than embittered ones, rather than being forced to withdraw, their egos
shattered, feeling inferior and not wanting to be involved in controlling. If all the 21's give up being in
control, we are going to have what the sixth line predicts: nothing but chaos.
21.6 Chaos
The thing to recognize about the nature of the materialism that is inherent in the 21 is that, built into the
most materialistic channel is also anti-materialism, which we already met in the third line: the
powerlessness that becomes a lack of will for the material plane because of the ego. That manifests
differently. For example, people saying that money is bad, that everybody should share. A good hippie
consciousness can come out of the 21.3. The same thing is true for the sixth line. Because sixth lines, in
and of themselves, are transitional, they are going to sit above in their aloofness and look out on things. A
21.6 is not very likely to be material and, when they are young, they get involved with it and they
discover that it can be disastrous for them.
Chaos. Where ineffective action leads to disorder. The moment that you see a line like that and you are
dealing with a sixth line, you really know that this line is going to spend most of its life judging whether
something could be an effective action or not. "Well, I don't know if I should really take control because I
don't know if it is really going to work and I don't know if I'll really get what I want to get and I don't
know whether I will be interfered with and I'll have all these problems." They learn that very early
because a 21.6 is like a bull in a china shop. They will go in there and, all of a sudden, everything is
flying and they never go into that shop again after that. "Why should I go in there? If I do the wrong
thing, everything is going to explode."
The other thing about this line is that the Pluto exalted is not there, so you are dealing with only the
Venus in detriment. Withdrawal and reliance on inner order in a chaotic situation. This is the greatest
fence sitter of all the sixth lines. The 21.6 sits there on that fence and it does not want to do anything else
other than sitting on that fence because it knows that if it steps off that fence, the possibility is that
nothing will result of it but chaos.
In the white book: Where the material direction is chaotic, the ego will withdraw and use its power to find
an inner order. But the moment a 21.6 knows what material path is for it and is in control of that material
path, you have somebody who can be an enormous success. Sixth lines have this inherent capacity to be
wise and fulfilled. It is like the 59.6 who will have a lot of quick relationships when it is young and then
give up; but if it finds the right relationship, it will display a quality of intimacy that we call soul mate,
that can be absolutely beautiful and it will spend day after day with its partner for the rest of its life. In
other words, there is the potential in the sixth line for quite a transition experience, something that is
really beyond the capacity of the hexagram. However, this is not a very good age for that because the 21.6
goes to the 51.1.
The reality is that the 21 and the 51 are next to each other, so that you have these two very expressive
gates of the ego system: one going the material way and one going the initiative and potentially mystical
way. When the 21.6 is sitting at its point on its roof and it is staring out, it stares into the 5 which does not
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have the Pluto exalted. It stares into the 5 in which withdrawal is something that is absolutely necessary
after a shock. So the reality is that this sixth line, which is rooted in withdrawal, is looking for an inner
order that is compounded by the fact that it is moving towards withdrawal. In other words, one of the
things that happens to a 21.6 in our time is that they want to be 51 's. Instead of the 21.6 ending up
pursuing the material path, they are going to look for the spiritual way and are trying to find wealth in
another way. Many of them end up being spiritual business people and end up making their living by
selling inner order. That is always a possibility for them.
But it is a very long process for the 21.6 to find their way. It is going to take time in their life before
something is really of value to them to be in control of because the thing for them is that it has to be able
to come out in the action. If it can't, it is not worth doing.
The actions have to be correct; otherwise there is nothing but chaos. The actions can only be correct if the
material path is correct. The 21.6 is not just looking to be in control, it has to be in control of the right
thing. The fact that it looks inward is actually an advantage because, from its point of view, it is there to
control. If they stay long enough and they watch the movie, they might find the material direction that is
correct for them. When chaos happens, the direction was not correct. The inner order was not right. The
actions were ineffective.
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HEXAGRAM 22 GRACE
The channel of Openness, the design of a social or an anti-social being, and the 22nd gate, the gate of
Grace. In English, there is a nice play on this: the gate of grace and the gate of disgrace. It can be both,
depending on the nature of the wave.
This channel is deeply mutative. It is only out of this channel that mutation can actually spread. It gives
this channel an unusual quality. All mutation moves out into the general population through the 12/22.
The 12th gate has already been responsible for the mutation in our larynx which allows us to articulate
through language. The 55th gate will be the mutation that takes place to allow the nature of the spirit to
come out, and the pressure is on the 22 to recognize when to be socially open to release the mutation.
This is the great gift of the 22, to know exactly when to release the mutation. If it doesn't, there is disgrace
because it does not work. Timing is in the nature of the moods. The 22nd gate: the gate of openness, the
possibility to provoke social openness or not. They can provoke it.
Remember the nature of the 39 that teases the 55. They can be deeply anti-social in the same way that the
55th gate can not only show the highest level of emotion, it can be absolutely icy cold in not releasing any
emotion whatsoever. The awareness possibility is the openness to eating.
One of the things that are very good for individuals is to speak to people while they are eating. This is
something I learned a long time ago as a teacher. I spent about ten years of my life teaching in formal
institutions at many different levels. I was always in institutions that enforced the no-eating process, for
decor, I assume. But students were not allowed to eat, other than when I was teaching in university. In the
early 1980's, I ran an experimental school in Ibiza. I took children who were having a hard time and that,
according to authorities, were not traditionally educational. I brought them together and taught them the
history of the universe in four months. I loaded them up with all kinds of information, just as memory
techniques. After one hour with me, they were hungry.
This is one of the things to recognize about the nature of the mind: the moment that you are truly using
your mind, if you are not getting hungry, there is something wrong because you are using an enormous
amount of energy. One of the things that kept my students brimming was that I allowed them to sit there
and stuff their face the whole time that I was teaching them. It maintained their energy. The brain will
deplete your energy very quickly and it is a very important thing to be able to eat while you are doing
your most powerful thinking process. Speaking to people while they are eating is very good for
individuals. It is the timing of those things.
There is a funny thing in the nature of lines that I thought about for many years. One of them is the
relationship between the 15 and the 22. The 15 is the love of humanity and it is the gate of extremism. It
is called Modesty. Then you come over here to Grace and, at its best, Grace is the most modest of all
gates as an incredible strategy. It truly deserves the name 'Modesty'. 'Grace' could be handed over to the
15th gate quite easily.
Everything about the individual is demanding attention. The nature of the individual process is trying to
get the attention of others. The 22nd gate has a special capability. It is not the 12th gate, nor the 55th gate
with its magic and mutation. It always has to take a backseat to the power of those two gates because the
individual is always at risk in the larger society. The nature of 22nd gate in romance, when we look at it
sexually, is the power to be attentive, to be open to listening.
Listening is so important in romance: the capacity to hear out each other. The 22nd gate carries with it the
power to empower attentiveness in others. This is its grace.
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When the 22nd gate is with others, it empowers them to be attentive; it empowers them to listen. This is
important. In doing that, it has to wait to hear them out first before it will get its chance to speak. It is
designed to be second and then it can bring out its response in its wave. The moment that the 22nd gate
tries to be the gun-slinger instead of being the polite one, it fails. When you watch a 22 drive, they always
allow others to go first, to get into the lane. This is their attentiveness. This is part of their power.
22.1 Second class ticket
The essence, the foundation of the hexagram. Moon exalted. The ability to accept and enjoy a subordinate
position. If there is no attentiveness, there is no mutation. There is no awakening of the human spirit out
of the 55, unless the 22 is willing to be the one that empowers the attentiveness. The stranger going out
into the world without the attentiveness, the mutation cannot take place because there is nobody to listen.
Mars in detriment. The inevitable humiliation that comes with claiming a first class seat with a second
class ticket. I have met these people who have done exactly the same thing. They are always caught
because that is not their job. The moment that they try to go ahead at the light instead of letting the other
person come, they instantly have an accident.
In the Book of Letters: The emotional awareness to enjoy a subordinate position; or Where the emotional
energy challenges the awareness and can result in social humiliation. This is such a key for 22's. Without
them, there is no public platform for mutation and yet their role is that, so often, they are not the ones that
get any credit.
22.2 Charm school
The second lines rarely, if ever, deliver any kind of mutation. The nature of Charm school is that there is
the ability to empower attentiveness through style. These people have a very powerful social mechanic:
they have the capacity to get other people to be attentive but, at the moment that their turn comes, they do
not have a lot to say. They have a social style but they do not necessarily have a mutation that they are
being able to contribute. Remember that this is projection and not introspection.
The belief that style can mask nature. Sun exalted. The ability to successfully delude oneself and others.
There is the sense of generating the attentiveness of others and, when their turn comes, they can be quite
confused because there does not seem to be a great deal behind that mask. It is a social skill. These people
are very good when that social skill is about their work. This is very handy to have on the material plane.
They are very good at socializing at the stranger level, easily being able to make contact, but the moment
that it gets more serious, the moment that it would involve a mutation, bringing something as a
contribution, that is where the dilemma begins. Their value is that they can bring about the attentiveness
so easily that they can create the social opportunities.
Jupiter in detriment. The legalization of form over substance. The charm school people with the detriment
are the ones who know that it is all style. They can take advantage of that. The value of that is to be able
to have a social situation in which you can offer something to get your individual process out.
The possibility to attract others with an emotional style; or Where the style is energized at the expense of
awareness. The style becomes everything. These are people that can really get your attention. They are
walking on the street and you see them and you say, "Wow, that is really something." Then again, you
may not be crazy about talking to them. That is another story.
22.3 The Enchanter
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The 22.3 is one of those attributes that people write and sing about. It is an emotional type that, through
the 12th gate, gets written about in love stories and poetry and songs. The third line is about adaptation
and it is about bonds made and broken. It is about allegiance and rejection.
This line is called The Enchanter. This is the capacity of Perfected grace, or openness. That perfected
openness is simply a genetic gift and it is not something that is anything other than self-involved. It is
individual. That openness is there and it is perfect, but it does not stay. This is just something that keeps
moving along. People are always confused by this because they think that that openness is something
tribal. They think that it is an intimacy. It seems like an intimacy; it feels like an intimacy, but it is not. It
is just this perfected openness, this perfected social grace.
Saturn exalted. Form as a definition and actualization of substance. It is in the form: that is the Saturnian
nature of it. It is really in the form. It is not something that is constructed. It is not something that is
learned. It is right there, deep in the form itself, in every movement of that. These are people that, when
you see them, you know that you have access to them, and that they will be open. That quality is there. It
just won't stay there. You can't hold on to it.
Mars in detriment. Unconscious grace. In the Book of Letters, we have: The possibility for perfected
openness through the alignment of emotional energy and awareness; and An innate openness, on the
Martian side. It is simply just there. The thing to recognize about this is that they will never allow a
romance to be consummated. This is the whole thing about the nature of this - they give you this sense
that there is some place to go with them and there is not. They are there to empower you at the most
attentive level. You are really there for them and then they are gone.
22.4 Sensitivity
When you get to the fourth line, you get to the line of externalization and you get to this fixedness, to this
onepointedness, to the one-trackedness. We come to Sensitivity. Remember that the nature of the fourth
line is that it is always ready to look to the other side; in this case, looking to the 12. Again, particularly in
this case, this is one of the three social channels, so it is deeply social and deeply concerned about what is
on the other side.
The modification of behavior to enrich interactions. The fixedness is: how do I modify my behavior?
They are very concerned about their behavior, often at the expense of getting the mutation out. They are
just concerned about what the behavior should be.
Neptune exalted. Neptune in this position already tells you that it will be tough. A mediumistic simplicity
that rejects elaborate rituals. This is one side of the behavioral process and the mediumistic quality, the
mood quality. The whole thing about the mood process is that the moment that you recognize the nature
of moods, you begin to recognize that you can identify moods of others through their tone. All of this is
very acoustic. This mediumistic simplicity is simply to catch the vibration and know whether it is the
right moment to create this individual process where you are going to try to bring about something that is
new, where you try to bring out your mutation.
Mars in detriment. An over-reliance on the mechanics of style that can abort potentially significant
relationships. They are so concerned about the behavior in the interaction, to be graceful, until finally
waiting for your moment to release that mutation.
In the Book of Letters, the exalted: The possibility of social openness through the rejection of formality.
Remember, this individual and its nature here is looking for the behavior that says, "This is really me. I
am individual. I don't have to do it the formal way."
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On the other side: The limitation of social openness through the need for formality. The moment that you
get into the formalities, you are limited in what kind of contact you are actually going to have.
This is the only moral dilemma of the individual. If you look throughout all the individuality, keynoted by
the 23.3: amorality that lies within the individual process, this is the moral bone for the individual: "If
they are not paying attention to me, something is wrong." In the contact to the other, they have all their
rights and wrongs. How do you deal with a stranger? How do you deal with the collective or the tribe?
They have all their rights and wrongs. This is where their morality lies: how they are supposed to deal
with the other. They get very fixed on that. The only way is to be informal; for example, executives that
run around and tell everybody to strip off their ties.
22.5 Directness
The fifth line is a line of universalization, particularly in this case because this is a stream in which so
much mutation takes place. The universalization that is possible through the fifth line here is very
significant. This fifth line carries with it the mantra I give to everyone who is individual, particularly in
this stream. "Don't do anything unless you are in the mood." This is the great mood line and the moment
that it is recognized for what it is, that is where its perfection lies.
It is called Directness. The disregard of form when required. 'Required' means if I am in the mood. If I am
in the! mood,, it is okay. If not; it is not okay. Jupiter exalted. The power inherent in higher principals to
successfully transgress behavioral codes., If I am not in the mood, I will not do it.
This one of my favorite stories: Jurgen and I, this year in the spring, were both very illl amd had traveled
from Amsterdam vial southern Germamy to Vienna to a very cold, wet place near the Hungarian border.
VVred arrived a day late and there were people silting in the mill, waiting for us to- arrive. We finally get
there. We have lunch and afterwards, we want to start the course. I can feel everybody's energy: they are
waiting and I start setting everything up, when Jurgen walks iin and says, "I am not in the mood, so I cant
do it." I know his design. He is a 12.5/22.5 which means that when he! is not in the mood, he. can't do, it.
It takes a lot of courage to say that. Ji rgen stayed in bed and Henrietta did the whole course and
everything was fine. People are always afraid to honor their true nature.. If you do not do so, you can
mever (live with yourself and you bring alll kinds of problems into other people's lives.
The integrity of this line is living by the nature of its moods. Only in honoring its moods does it honor the
deep potential that lies in that: to be graceful. Otherwise, they really are disgraceful. They disgrace
themselves and can create very embarrassing situations, such as Mars in detriment: A tendency to create
embarrassing situations, and though invariably successful, the often resulting reputation for crudity and
impudence.
In the white book: The possibility through emotional awareness to behave individualistically in social
interaction. To behave individualistically is to honor your moods.
The possibility that individual behavior in social interaction will generate negative projections from
others. So often I get invited some place and, the moment I am there, my mood says, "Go." So I walk out.
If I don't live with myself, I have a problem. I follow the nature of what my moods tell me. I have the
12th gate. If I step into an emotional field that I don't like, I immediately know to leave. When I walk out,
I know what they say behind me. I have been called everything.
22.6 Maturity
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One of the great jokes about this is that the next line is the 36.1. We go back to the deep need for an
experience; in other words, not to have a second class ticket, to go beyond that to actually experience
something different. This line is called Maturity. The alignment with experience of form with substance.
Sun exalted. Natural and evident leadership and authority. It is through this sixth line that we will live out
a new social mutation. Think about that. Spirit awareness is something that will be the most social thing.
We can't even imagine now how social that is. This is an entirely new social horizon that will come into
view for us. The leadership for that lies with the 22 because it is about attentiveness, paying attention to
the other in a very deep way. Paying attention to the spirit of the other, ultimately, is its possibility and the
leadership comes out of that.
Mars in detriment. The alignment tends to express itself in nonconformist modes. Something very
different can come out of this line, something very new. The 12.6 is called Metamorphosis. Only two
gates in the whole wheel have such a name; the other gate is the 62.5. In the stream from the 39.6 to the
12.6, there is a deep metamorphic process.
In the Book of Letters: The possibility that experience in social interaction will result in a leadership
capacity. These people really know the social environment, but again, their concern is far beyond that.
Their concern is the establishment of mutation that they would love to see experienced (their movement
to the 36): will this mutation bring crisis? What kind of change will it bring? It tries to see what it is going
to be like. Remember that the individual brings mutation, but only the collective judges it. The individual
does not. In this context, it is looking for that experience to see what it will be like. Not an experiment; it
is not something logical that is about to happen.
Please take this as a deeply mystical clue. Spirit awareness is not logical any more than emotions are
logical. We can describe it logically through Human Design, but we are describing the mechanic and not
the emotion. The spirit is not something that will be logical. That is one of the keys to recognize.
The possibility that experience in social interaction will result in a non-conformist expression of
openness. This non-conformist expression of openness is a window to the possibilities of the emotional
spirit. Now, these people can be easily depressed by not being able to see the mutation and the nature of it
alive. These people know; whether it is through breathing or singing or meditating, they have had a
glimpse within them in their capacity to be attentive. They can be so attentive that they can almost listen
to the neutrino stream.
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HEXAGRAM 23 SPLITTING APART
There is a difference between the collective process in the throat, with its primary gates of
communication, and the individual process. The collective process in the throat is the capacity to be able
to translate the internal image or concept from the mind into language, into words: to get people in the
abstract process to be able to see and make sense out of what you are telling them, or in the logical
process to get people to recognize and understand the facts.
When we come to the individual process, it operates differently because the individual mind is acoustic.
Whenever you see individuality in a chart, what you are looking at is an aspect that operates at an acoustic
level. So, rather than trying to translate an image and turn it into language so that you can get people to
see what you are talking about, the 23rd gate acts as a legitimate translator, very much like what Jurgen
does when he translates me. That is, you take the original inner sound, the inner voice, and find a way to
translate that into a language that allows the individual to explain themselves.
The channel 43/23, the channel of Structuring, is a design of individuality subtitled: 'from genius to freak.'
The individual is always on the outside until they find a way to be able to explain themselves. Unless the
individual can explain themselves, they are always going to be placed on the outside. The 23rd gate does
not say, "I believe," like the abstract voice. It does not say, "I think," like the logical voice. It says, "I
know," or "I don't know." When you say, "I know," you had better be able to explain yourself; if you
can't, you will be rejected.
Above the lines it says, Amorality. It is one of the things to recognize about the nature of the individual
process that, contrary to the collective and the tribal processes, which are both moralistic, the individual
process is not. Amorality is the key to the individual process. It is not about what is right or wrong. It is
about what one knows or does not know.
The awareness and understanding that leads to the acceptance of diversity. The difficulty with all
individuality is that it seeks to be accepted. It will always attract attention. Because the individual is
different and brings the potential for a mutative force, the individual can be easily rejected. When the
individual becomes moralistic, they are the first to be rejected. The reality is that individuals are simply
different. It is not about whether it is good or bad.
23.1 Proselytization
The first line of any hexagram describes the foundation. This is the introspective quality; this is the pure
nature of a hexagram. The first line of the 23rd hexagram is called Proselytization. The attempt to
undermine one set of values for another. This word describes a process in which you try to convince other
people of what you know.
Jupiter exalted. The sage who, in the extreme, can defend evil as a part of the greater good. Venus in
detriment. The missionary whose very light will bring darkness. These are the two sides of the individual
process. It is about bringing mutation. The 23rd hexagram is bringing the possibility of mutation as a
description of a mental concept. For example:
I am a pure individual. I have am individual mind. I bring the knowing that I have and do the-very best I
canto explain iit. The reality its that that either leads to a mutative way in which we think or I will be
rejected as a freak. These are the two sides of the same coin.
The powerful expression of an insight which will undermine established values. The Human Design
System undermines a great deal of dogma. On the other side: The powerful expression of an insight which
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wig produce negative effects. Something that can be mutative can be mutative in a positive or in a
negative way. Thcit iis, this very mutafive force cam seem very offensive. If you are a black native in the
heart df Africa and you have a white missionary coming to you and telling you, -NI know that Jesus will
save you," this cam be ireal pain in the neck, even if the white person is really convinced that he/she does
a very good job of explaining that. One person's knowing cam be very offensive to the collective or-to -
the tribe. So, bath sides of these realities dlwnays exist in the 23, which means ilhatthe 23, when it opens
its mouth and says, "I know," is always open to refection. This is the-other side of the coin.
23.2 Self-defense
When you are dealing with the first line, because you are dealing with a voice that says, "I'know," and
explains itself, the first line recognizes that there is knowing within it, but it is looking into the nature of
the knowing. When you get to the second line, you are always getting to a line of projection. We know
that the second line is going to project out the quality of the gate. The second line is always the child in
the classroom that goes, "I know," and that does not mean they do.
The whole thing about the nature of the individual is that every aspect of individuality that you find in a
chart, that aspect has a built-in resistance to interference. This is one of the keys to individual integrity.
The key is: fall on your own face and do not take anybody else's advice. The reality is that when you have
a child with the 23.2 that is four years old and is yelling at their parents, "I know," it can get them into a
lot of trouble because they may not really know. They do not have the ability to look inward the way the
first line does. They project this knowing out.
This line is called Self-defense. This is the key to the defense of the individual and it will get its full
quality when it resonates to the fifth line where the individual process can be universalized. It says: The
need to abandon tolerance when survival is threatened. Survival is a very powerful word and it is talking
about the nature of what it is to be an individual. If you are an individual and you know something and
you swallow that in the face of the resistance from others, your survival as an individual comes to an end.
That is, your capacity to maintain your individual nature deteriorates, and so many people who have the
23rd gate never express their "I know" because they were slapped down when they were children. They
were constantly being put in their place and being told, "You don't know."
Jupiter exalted. The principle of preservation at its most acute. "I know, I know, I know," and they keep
screaming it at the Moon in detriment: Where Jupiter will strike out to preserve its integrity, the Moon is
often satisfied with just protecting itself by fending off hostility. This is the beginning of the individual
deteriorating. The moment the individual is concerned about harmony is the moment that deterioration
comes into their individuality. This is very difficult for people who have a lot of individual definition in
their design because it is very hard for them, genetically speaking, to be able to accept the input from
others. Yet, built into this, like all the dualities and the polarities in Design, is an inherent weakness
within the individual: the fear of being rejected, the fear that their contribution to the totality cannot be
made.
In the white book it says: The abandonment of tolerance when individual expression is threatened. These
are people that insist on getting out their "I know," on projecting that knowing out.
On the other hand: The defense of individual expression in the face of hostility. This is the moment
where, for example, in the process of a child who has a knowing inside of them, because they have been
told in the past that they don't know, rather than saying what they do know, they are more concerned in
keeping everybody happy around them. "I don't want to be treated like a freak so I'd better not tell them
what I know."
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You notice, by the way, that when I make these references in how this is lived out, I am very often
referring to children. It is very important to understand that, by the time you get to be an adult, you are
already so deeply conditioned so far away from your nature. The reality is that this kind of knowledge,
ultimately, is for children so that their process can be healthy and so the people that raise these children
can have a deep recognition of the nature of what is there.
Collective children do not have the same kind of difficulties in dealing with criticism because they are
born to be critical themselves and they are born to share the nature of criticism. This is part of the process
of being collective, through experience and experimentation. The tribal child has a contact with those
around him that is very deep and supportive even when it is difficult because there is a much deeper bond
in the relationship. But when you are dealing with an individual child or aspects of individuality in a
child, because they are different and they do not function in those ways, they are deeply sensitive to
criticism. The criticism at the child's level in the individual child is something that will inhibit their
capacity and their security to be able to express their individuality.
23.3 Individuality
When you come to this third line, it is called Individuality. It is the nature of the individual process. It is,
in this sense, the archetype of the individual process, that the individual knower cannot really be of value,
cannot really bring wisdom, unless that knower makes a lot of mistakes. All third lines are about
adaptation. Knowing can be a very fixed process and the reality is that the knower who goes through a
mistake process and comes to grips with that process of trial and error and adaptation, that the nature of
their individuality, the power of their ability to explain themselves, grows.
Whenever I deal with individuals, I always remind them that it is very important for them to develop
language skills. It is very important for them to develop the capability of being able to explain themselves
because, if you can't explain yourself as an individual, it is so easy for others to reject you.
Independent expression that is by its nature not detrimental to others. Sun exalted. Vitality and personal
power that can engender jealousy but not threat. In the white book: Individual expression that attracts
attention but not threat. Those individuals that go through the process of making mistakes learn how to
couch their language in such a way that they are not threatened in their expression of "I know."
Then you have the Pluto in detriment. An individual mysteriousness that attracts active suspicion and
threat. In the white book: The Freak. Individual expression that attracts suspicion and threat. I am
someone who has the 43.3/23.3. When Pluto was in the 43rd gate, which took place in 1990, I went
through this process of having everybody deal with me as a black magician who is crazy and dangerous.
It made a lot of people very uncomfortable. This is simply the nature of it.
There is a whole generation of children being born with Pluto in that position and, when they grow up,
they will not like me. What to do? By the way, the children that were born just after that generation have
Neptune in 61 and I have my Design Sun in 6 Occult knowledge, and Neptune is exalted there. So the
children that are a little bit younger than the other generation will like me. It balances out in the end.
23.4 Fragmentation
We are in the upper trigram, which is about externalizing. It is the recognition that there is something
across the way. There is a recognition that one has to deal with it in a transpersonal way. It is about being
fixed in the sense of being one-tracked and it says here, Fragmentation. Diversification without a
perceived potential for synthesis. These are knowing-junkies. They move from one knowing to another
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and there is no way for them in which those disparate, diverse knowings add up to something. Due to the
fact that there is no potential for synthesis, there is simply a collection of knowing.
Sun exalted. Fatalism and egoism and damn the consequences. When these people get into their knowing
trip, it is all they can externalize, even if it has nothing to do with anything else. These people simply
want to get that knowing out and externalize it. They have a one-track mind. That is the resonance, by the
way, to the 43.4, the One-track mind.
The other side of this is the Earth in detriment. Atheism and paranoia. Individuals that simply put out
knowing that is of no value to the collective, individual expression that has no collective value. If the
collective is not interested in what the knower has to say, the knower is going to be shunned. So the
knower then shifts to the next knowing, but it still has no value to the collective because it is an individual
knowing process in which they are fixed.
When you come to the detriment side, to the atheism and paranoia, to these kinds of knowers, knowing is
all about three things: knowing what you can know, recognizing what is not worth knowing and being
clear about what is unknowable. These people, because they are into so much knowing, they see that
nothing really is of value. Because of that and because the outside world is going to appear to be cruel to
them because they are going to be rejected by it, they can become very paranoid about releasing their
knowing, very paranoid about the way that they see people coming towards them. The fear of that
rejection and that paranoia becomes paranoia that there is no cosmic protection either, that there is no God
to hear their prayer anymore than there is an individual or a person out there willing to hear and take in
their knowing.
Again, it is so easy for human beings to be moralistic, and the moment that you get a description of a line
like that, it is so easy to jump on that. "Aha, this is not good." It is not about that. This, after all, is the gate
of Amorality. It is not about the morality of the line. For every single line and for every single aspect, you
will have a value. One of those bizarre funny knowings that the fourth line can get into in their one-track
trip is that it can ultimately turn out to be of enormous value. It is just difficult for them to get that out and
they are very uncomfortable inside because there is this deep fear of rejection.
Remember, the individual process (to say, "I know"), always places you at risk because if you can't
explain it, you are a fool or worse. So, here in the fourth line, with all of this movement and diversity,
there is not enough depth for a real explanation, and the depth does not permit the synthesis. And so, out
of that can come a great deal of anxiety. "They are never going to know what I mean." This is the real fear
in the 23. The fourth line is the one that lives out pure individuality because they simply put their
knowing out and do not pay any attention to the consequences. They just don't care. But they do. This is
very disturbing for them.
23.5 Assimilation
Remember that the first line always gives you the basis or the nature of the hexagram but the fifth line
always tells you the way the world looks at it. The fifth line is in resonance to the second line, which
projects out, and the fifth line is projected on. What is projected onto the fifth line is that it is there to be
assimilated and to assimilate. This is one of the keys to the individual and it also shows you the pressure
that comes from the outside that is placed on the individual. "Yes, you are very interesting, but be like us.
You might know something but you'd better behave the way we behave because, otherwise, you will have
problems with us." The individual cannot survive in the world without some capacity for assimilation.
The practical acceptance of the values of another path. Jupiter exalted. Expansion and contribution
through assimilation. There is no way for the individual to survive and allow its gifts to penetrate into the
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world without this gift of being able to assimilate, without this gift of being able to find some way
socially to integrate oneself into the community.
The Moon in detriment. Motive -driven assimilation from an inferior position, i.e., for protection or
nourishment. These are people that really trade off their knowing. This is the individual that will sell out
their knowing because they recognize that the assimilation is so important. Remember that everybody is
projecting onto the 23.5 that they know. Because of that, the outside also wants them to bring that
knowing out, even if they can't explain themselves. The moment that they can't explain themselves, all
that falls apart.
So, here in the white book, the Jupiter side is: The gift of communicating individual insight to the
collective. Here is the gift of reaching out to the collective through assimilation. On the other side, we
have: Motive driven assimilation for acceptance and protection from the collective. "I will be nice to
them. I am not going to tell them what I know. I want them to like me. I don't want them to throw me out.
A couple of years from now, maybe, when they really do accept me I'll tell them what I know."
This is what usually happens with the fifth line and again, the nature of how somebody can express their
individuality is almost exclusively conditioned by their culture, by their family environment when they
were young, usually within the first seven years. The impact of how you are conditioned by the outside
world when you are an individual child has enormous impact for the rest of your life, whether or not you
are going to have the courage to be able to express your "I know", or whether you spend all of your time
being concerned about being accepted by the society around you.
The vast majority of individuality on this planet is more concerned about being accepted and not being
rejected by the totality' than they are aboutestablishingi their knowing in the world. As you can see from
this projected pressure from the outside, theigreatest'presswre on the individual is to assimilate. Once you
have established the value of your knowing,, after that, you have to be like everybody else.
23.6 Fusion
When you come to the sixth line, to the end of the process, you come to this place of transition.. As we.
have seen already, it is rare fop the sixth line to be actively involved in the process of the hexagram
because it is so interested) in what is going on in the whole circuit. When you are dealing with the
circuitry of Individuality,, yow are dealing with an emormously complex circuitry. The! moment-you are
looking owl towards all of that circuitry, what you are really looking owl towards is: Is any knowing of
value if: it does not lead) to m iutatiomt This is the! nature of the sixth line here.. In order for knowing to
lead to mutation, this is; a process that comes out of bringing the diversity into synthesis, as a fusion.
This line is. called Fusion. It says: The! gradual attunement of diversity through synthesis. The! first thing
to recognize is that these are indiMidualb that will take the longest time to express their "I know." Built
into them is a genetic recognition that each knowing is a block that eventually )builds a structure a this is
the channel of Structuring) in which the! knowing is so clear that the! mutation is then possible.
Mars exalted. The exponential growth of energy and its power of assertion engendered by fusion. In the
white book: Individual knowing which brings diversity through synthesis. But that takes time. These are
not the kind of knowers that jump up and say, "I know, I know." There is this sense of knowing in them,
but there is also this sense that the knowing is not complete. Knowing is about knowing who you are and
why you are. That is the core of knowing. For the individual, that is the essence for them. That is a
complex process because you have to live long enough to be able to get some kind of an impression of
what it is to be in this world, in your own life.
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Jupiter in detriment. The principled but futile withdrawal from fusion that leads to atrophy. This is the
sixth line saying, "I know a lot of things but I don't know what I really need to know and I have had
enough. It is not possible. How can I find that knowing that will lead to mutation? I have been going
through all of these knowings and I don't know how all of that can fit together."
Individual knowing that holds on to diversity and loses its power in expression. The sixth line can only
express a knowing that is mutative. Otherwise, it is not really going to bother. Of course, as a child, it will
go through the "I know, I know" process, like all children that are individual in terms of the mental or
throat process, but the reality is that, as they mature in life, they are going to hold back more and more
and more until they have that opportunity to see the synthetic knowing. If not, they'll wait. We have been
looking at how sixth lines move to the next hexagram. We saw how the abstract shifts over to the logic
and how the logic jumps back over to the abstract, and here, in this individual process, we have this
remarkable movement. VWte have this movement that goes from the 23.6 to the 8.1.
The 8.1 is the very next hexagram and it is the mirror to the 23 because it is out of the 8 that its potential
contribution can be made to society, not at a mental level, but in terms of identity and direction.
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HEXAGRAM 24 RETURNING
Here, we have the individual acoustic process in the center. The individual mind resonates both to the
splenic side, the awareness wave, and the emotional wave and it is always all over the place in time. It is
not simply in the now. There is only one gate that is existential, the 20th gate, and even that is relative.
The now is something that does not last very long.
We are dealing with the relative present when we are dealing with individuality and that present is always
both reflecting on what is past and projecting on what is in the future. But it is not doing this visually.
This is an acoustic process and it has to do with what has been taken in, in terms of what has been heard.
Part of what we hear, we hear very accurately in the now and other parts of what we hear, we don't hear
well at all. We hear in waves. This means that we only remember parts of what has been said, not all of it.
When you are dealing with the nature of the individual, you are dealing with the dilemma of knowing. To
know what you can know, to know what you can know but what is not important for you to know, and to
know what is unknowable. If you cannot distinguish between those three, you will never find silence in
your mind. That is the one thing the individual mind is looking for: silence. In the same way that the
abstract mind does not want any bad, old movies anymore, the individual mind would just like to have
silence, quiet in there.
We are looking at the channel of Awareness, a design of a thinker, and Returning, the gate of
Rationalization: the awareness to struggle for knowing or mot. This is the whole thing. Can. it be known?
This goes back to the: 28/38, the channel of Struggle, amd the 28, the fear of death.. Is it really
worthwhile?' 16 life of value? Is itworth it? Its it something that can be known amd, if so, does it deserve
struggle? Is itworthwhile to really know it? You can become a nudear physicist but it-does not mean that
it is worthwhile for you to have that kind of knowledge.
It is just not about recognizing what is knowable. It is about whether you should struggle for that
kmowimg or not. The. awareness potential is the relentlessness, of the unresolved thinking. The return:
you go back again and again because! yow cani t resolve it and,, until you can resolve it, you will not
have silence. You have to resolve whether it is knowable, whether it is worth knowing and worth
struggling for.
Abowei the lines; it says:: The natural and spontaneous process of translorntwtufon and renewal. It is the
pulse. One moment it is not there and the next moment you can know it.
24.1 The Sin of omission
First line, foundation: The. sin of omission. Transformation that requires retrogressive periods before
renewal can take place. Sun exalted. The will to triumph and in this case the faith thatthe end jusfihes the
means.. All of this is the result of inspiration. The 24 gets an inspiration and, as it says; in the white book:
Inspiration that demands a reassessment of past thinking before a rational concept can be established. Is
this really the knowing? Do I really know this? I have to go back and see if this is really correct.
The Neptune in detriment. Self-delusion which unnaturally justifies periods of retrogression. In the white
book: Inspiration that leads to an irrational focus on what is past. Everything about the individual is the
potential for what is new. They live in a collective and tribal world and the whole thing for them is that
they are always looking for the framework. "Is this something that I can make rational?" The only way to
make it rational is: "What is it like?" so then they go back into their knowing system. "Is it like this or like
this? Is it really different?"
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The whole foundation of the knowing process is to eliminate what is not original because the moment that
you see that it is something from the past, the moment that you can reference it, is the moment you put it
aside.
The whole thing about the individual mind is that it has to generate something new. It is not there to
produce something that is old. For example, you are working on a piece of music and you have a tune that
is running through your head and you think, "I just came up with a nice tune. That is my tune." If you
have the first line, there is immediately this, "Wait a minute, let's check it out. Is it really my tune? Did I
hear this somewhere else before? Is it like another song that I heard?" In the detriment, you get so focused
in that that you never sing your own tune because you are constantly going back and trying to figure out:
"Did I borrow this from somebody? Did somebody influence me with this? Is it really mine?" If it is not
really theirs, they cannot keep it.
24.2 Recognition
This line has no introspection. So, here we have Recognition. The Moon exalted. The proper and
spontaneous adaptation to new forms. "I have this new melody." There is no checking in this line. Mars in
detriment. The vanity to see transformation as a personal achievement rather than a socially supported or
natural phenomenon.
What you have here is: The potential gift of conceptualizing spontaneously. "I have this new melody."
Because there is no introspection and because you just project that out, somebody will say to you, "That is
not new." That is a big crash for the 24.2's. "What do you mean? It is my melody." "That song was
recorded in 1972. I have it at home. This song of yours is plagiarism." All second lines get into trouble
because they are always projecting, without the introspection to go with it.
On the other side: The mental vanity that such a gift can produce. "I don't care what you say. It is my
melody. I know that it is mine."
24.3 The Addict
This is the line of adaptation. Here, the resonance from both the emotional side and the splenic side is
bonds made and broken. This becomes very difficult. It becomes a hooking into and a snapping out of the
knowing process. This can be very difficult because, after all, this gate is called Returning. It is about
going through the process of figuring out what is knowable, what you can know, and what is worth
knowing.
This line is called The Addict. The powerful attraction of regressive forms. Venus exalted. The ultimate
though difficult triumph over regression. Jupiter in detriment. Addiction and regression legitimized by
success.
The third line has the capacity to reach out to the other side, though it can be very irresponsible in the way
it does that. The 24.3 wants the 61. That is all. It keeps on hooking into the inspiration of the 61 and then
breaks the bond with the inspiration. After a while, this becomes very irrational because there is no real
work at making it rational. It is irresponsible, after all. It does not matter whether that "I know" is
knowable or not. "I know the name of God." That can bring a lot of success to somebody. "I am the son of
God. I will tell you about it." It is irrational because we cannot know that name. At the same time, success
can legitimize that kind of illusion. "I know what is unknowable." That can be something that gets
justified by success.
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These individuals have an enormously difficult time because when you meet a 24.3 and if they do get to
the throat naturally through the 43/23, their ability to explain themselves is deeply limited and they end
up sounding like abstract people. They end up asking you to believe them. They are just interested in the
constant flow of inspiration. They are looking for the other side and they try to rationalize it for a moment
and then they go over to the next thing. They can be very good at debunking people. When they are
mature, they can recognize false knowers. They are very valuable for that. They know who is just making
a show to get other people's attention.
24.4 The Hermit
The externalization process in this line is the most anti-social of all mental processes. The individual's
primary goal is to preserve its integrity. The individual mind is not there to be influenced. That is why it
is so obsessed with checking whether it has been influenced or not. It is there to be original and mutative
as a force. When you get to the line of The Hermit, the fixedness of this line is, "Don't influence me." It is
always trying to keep influences away and tends to be the kind of mind that works best when it is alone.
Transformation that can only take place in isolation. Saturn exalted. The discipline and focus that assures
renewal. Neptune in detriment. The tendency in isolation to live in a fantasy world. That living in a
fantasy world is not a negative. It can be deeply creative.
Aloneness enriches the potential for rational thought; and Aloneness encourages the potential of illusion
or delusion. Aloneness is a keynote here. They are fixed on being alone. The only way that you can get to
these people is through the brotherhood/sisterhood, through kindness that can end up as meanness. After a
long time, they may tell you what they know and they may listen to what you say. For them to be able to
come to a rational point in their process, they need to be alone. I always tell these people the same thing.
"Be alone. Work out your knowing alone."
24.5 Confession
The fifth line is the penultimate of a hexagram. It is the part of the hexagram that is the universal element
of whether the nature of the hexagram is really there to go into the world.
Confession. The courage to admit the mistakes of the past. One thing to recognize about the nature of
knowers is that what the knower knows at any given moment can mutate and a new knowing can replace
it. That is either a natural process that is taken in stride, the knower getting a new knowing, or it can
become full of all kinds of problems psychically: "I know this now but the reason that I did not know it
before is that I had a problem before with this person. I was not trained properly. I was not given enough
information."
Moon exalted. The practical value of starting with a clean slate, symbolized by the new Moon. Mars in
detriment. The tendency to try to minimize past mistakes through rationalization, turning confession into
justification. The most important thing for a knower is to be able to say, "I made a mistake. I did not
know. I thought I knew but I didn't. Now I know." This is very, very important for the knowing process.
This is part of what the seduction is.
The nature of this confession is: Rational correction that opens the way to new possibilities. "I did not
know before but now I know." Now there is a new possibility that is waiting.
On the other side: Irrational justification of past mistakes. Because the knower is always trying to attract
attention, they always put their knowing out there. They come and tell you something and two weeks
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later, they come back to you and say, "This is wrong." Then they make up all these excuses why they did
not know it in the first place. This can become obsessive. That knowing can be transformed.
The moment that there is mutation, there is a new knowing that comes along. This is a natural process but
it means that at the heart of every knower is the capacity to confess. This says a great deal about the fact
that in the 20/10 and the 25/51, which are both mystical channels that are part of the individuality process,
there is a need to confess that they did not know. I know; I have been in that process myself. I was an
enormously arrogant man who denied all kinds of mystical and supernatural phenomena. I did not only
debunk it, I defamed it. The reality is that I had to confess to myself that I did not know. I was ignorant.
Now I know. Now I have a new possibility.
This is one of the important things in the process of an individual: to accept that one did not know. Think
about the resonance: the second line goes out and says, "I have a new melody." This fifth line will go out
and say, "You were right. I made a mistake. It was not my melody. It was that old melody you told me
about." This is what makes the knower acceptable. The moment that the knower cannot make the
confession of not knowing, they are no longer acceptable. They will no longer be tolerated and these are
the individuals that will really get hurt by the outside, being alienated from the outside. They will really
be the freaks that get rejected. By the way, the fifth line of the abstract mind was The Saint, and here we
have the Confession.
24.6 The Gift Horse
The sixth line is the line of transition which is moving towards the next step, to the 2. 1 , where the driver
is. It goes directly into an individual process.
This is the recognition of what is sterile and what is not. The Gift horse. The possibility of being deaf
when opportunity knocks. For the sixth line, it is not important whether it can know something or not, or
know something which is knowable or unknowable. What is important here is mutation. It is the only
thing that is important to the sixth line. Mutation here goes directly to the magnetic monopole (from the
24.6 to the 2.1). It goes directly to direction, to bringing the mutation out as a direction for life and the
possibility is that they are going be deaf. They won't hear it.
Jupiter exalted. The conscious participation in a process that prepares one for easy identification of
opportunity. The other side is: Innate suspicion which leads inevitably to lost opportunities. The 24.6 can
always work on the knowing and thus, they can be very good thinkers. None of that thinking is of any
value to them unless there is something inside of them that says, "Aha, this can lead to mutation." Often,
they look like they are missing something, that they do not really see it. The fact is: they do. They just
know if something will not get to mutation. When I say they know that, remember that they may know in
that moment and it may not be so, but nonetheless that is their knowing.
Identification and focus with the rational thought process; or Ohen irrational suspicion that distorts the
focus and can lead to missed opportunities. The suspicion is about whether the knowing will mutate. It is
just not about whether it can be known. These are deep knowers. They are very clear people. What they
are concerned about is the only thing that will make it worthwhile. Remember the 28.6, Blaze of glory.
You can be suicidal in that. The only thing that makes it worthwhile, the only thing worth knowing is
something that is really leading to mutation and a new direction. If they don't get it in their lives, they can
be very depressed, constantly ignoring opportunities that are brought to them and of course, the moment
that you see a line that talks about missed opportunities, you know it means that they have all kinds of
opportunities in their life. Opportunities will always come.
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The nature in this sixth line is that it is looking for the mutation. What I tell these people is that only the
things that they do click to are the things that are of value to them. I tell them not to worry about all those
missed opportunities. They do. This is Returning. They go back and say, "Maybe that one could have
mutated."
There is a resonance here to the third line, The Addict. The addict gets an enormous amount of
inspiration. They are always sucking it in and then they break the bond. What happens to the sixth line is
that, early in their life, they jump a lot. They can because they know. They jump a lot and discover very
quickly that it is not easy to get things into mutation. That leads them to take their distance. Once they
have been burnt, they really back off and wait for their opportunity, for the one that really does it for
them.
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HEXAGRAM 25 INNOCENCE
We discussed the collective gates of love (see the discussion in the 15th gate and in the 46th gate) and I
hope that the impression that you were left with is not about the way in which love is externalized, but
internalized. Everything about the love rooted in the ego or the love rooted in electro-magnetic
connections is all about the externalization of love, but it has nothing to do with the Higher Self. It has
nothing to do with our connection to the totality. That has to do with the internalization of love. We saw
in the love of humanity that, rather than it being the cliche, 'Love thy neighbor', it is to be oneself and to
allow everybody else to be themselves. That generates a healthy aura.
When it comes to the physical body, the greatest dilemma that people have in their life is that most human
beings don't like the body they were given. It does not mean just the aesthetic values of the body. It has to
do with what seem to be the potentials of that body, whether it is the nature of the brain, the type of
metabolism, the shapes or the sizes, and it has to do with the fact that the body is a burden.
In order for the body to be healthy, the experience of being in the body has to be accepted without
question. That is the nature of what it is to love oneself in terms of loving what it is to be in the body: to
love the flesh. To love the flesh is to accept that what one is and what one has is exactly what one is
supposed to have and exactly the right thing for one's karma, for one's geometry in this life, and that the
only way in which you are healthy is if you surrender to life. That is what the 46 is all about. It is about
surrendering to life.
The 44 is part of the mechanism that is rooted in the 46. That is, these splenic gates are guided by its
prime gate 46, to surrender to what it is to be alive. The first thing to recognize about collective love is
that it is not what you think that is. It is collective only in the sense that it becomes love in the world out
of the collective, but out of each and every single one of the collective. Again, see clearly that the two
collective gates of love are directly opposite two individual gates of love and this individual process,
because we are individuated beings, is at the core of our experience. So it is not about one's capacities to
bring love out into the world, it is about the inside. It is about accepting what it is to be oneself.
The 25th gate is very complex because it is part of the centering circuit and therefore, it is an essential
ingredient in turning everything towards individuality. The centering circuit, like the defense circuit, is a
minor circuit. Minor circuits can always be added, or their influence can always be connected, to any
other circuit. So the centering circuit, whenever it is present, always brings things towards their
individuality. That is the first thing.
The second thing about the 25th gate: you can see that the gates of love are constructed out of circuitry
that is both individual and collective, and there is no tribal possibility. The tribal possibility to connect to
love is through the 51/25. So the 25 not only represents a capacity to express love for the individual, it is
also at the heart of how the love of self is available to the tribe as well. More than that, the 25th gate has a
highly mystical value which we will not deal with here. It is not possible to teach the mystical value of
any of these gates without really understanding that the structure of the hexagram has to be seen
differently. The mundane values of the 25th gate are what I will deal with here.
Above the lines it says: The perfection of action through an uncontrived and spontaneous nature. 'The
perfection...' Perfection is not a word you find very often, particularly in the Rave I'Ching. '...of action...'
Right away there should be an enormous question in your head: what the hell has action to do with the
25th gate? The 25th gate is part of the G center and is not connected to a motor, '...through an
uncontrived...' Not motivated, not made up, not predetermined; not worked out. '...and spontaneous
nature.' Nature is a word that is specifically related to the 10th gate. The 25th gate and the 10th gate have
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a deep connection to each other because they are both about a possibility of centering the nature of
humanity, that is, centering the behavior of the individual so that the individual can survive in the world.
25.1 Selflessness
The first line always gives you the foundation. This first line in particular is something that is very
profound and, when you get into its deepest levels, you really begin to recognize the nature of what
universal love is all about. The first line is called Selflessness. Here we are in the self.
The 25 is pointed towards the most dynamic willpower in the body. It is pointed towards the deepest
sense of ego power because the will in the 51 is an enormous thing, and that will is deeply possessive. "I
am the power," says the 51, and the 25 says, "No, the power exists." The 25 is selfless in the sense that it
is not going to claim ego power. The 51 says "I am the jumper," and the 25 says "There is only the jump."
There is no claim, no possessiveness here. One cannot possess the universe. Motiveless action.
Here, we come to a very important impact in the genetic continuity of the global program because, in the
25.1 and the 25.3, we have lines that are impacted by the fact that neither Neptune nor Pluto has been in
Aries for a very long time. The 25/51 is an Arian channel and both Pluto and Neptune have been far away
from being able to activate this channel of Initiation for many years. (Please see the section on Outer
Planet Transits in the Glossary in Volume 2.)
The first thing to recognize about Selflessness is that the overview is motiveless action. It is something
that has to be learned. It is an overview. We are all conditioned to be motivated, all of us. We are
conditioned to have a motive. If you do this, you get that. We are always conditioned by motivation.
Neptune exalted. The universalization of activity. Psychic attunement that is its own reward. This line
does not exist in the world. Neptune will get there in about 30 years, probably around the time that the
cycle changes (2027). Pluto will be in Aries in 2080.
What we have is the Mercury in detriment. It is the only thing that is active in the first line and remember
that this is the foundation. This is the foundation of what selflessness is in our age. It is: A tendency to
publicize one's selflessness. Mother Teresa, Princess Diana, all this propaganda about how selfless one is.
It is not enough to be a quiet philanthropist. Everyone has to blow their philanthropic horn. That is,
everybody is making a claim about their selflessness. "Look how selfless I am. Look, I have no motive. I
am just a wonderful person."
In the white book: The potential for centering through attunement to challenges. That does not exist. We
don't have that. There will be a generation born with it some day, but what we are dealing with now is:
The insecurity of the Self manifested in times of challenge. That is very productive for us. We live in an
era where the Self is insecure and so we have an enormous movement throughout the world that people
try to secure their identity. "Who am I? What am I? Where am I? Is there a motive? Is only God great?"
You can see that the detriment here is one of the keys to the revival of fundamentalism and theocracies in
the world, this lack of identity being imprinted by old religious symbols onto people.
The insecurity of the Self manifested in times of challenge. Challenge is a keynote for the channel. That
is, the competitiveness that lies in initiation always has to deal with the challenge of the ego that must be
met. What happens here in the challenge from the ego is that the selflessness is there, but it always has to
be expressed because there is uncertainty about the quality of identity. In other words, the identity is not
strong enough just to be silently motiveless, that identity has to be able to say, "Look what I have done.
Ain't I terrific? I hope that they are going to make me a saint."
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This is lower trigram, so it does not know that the 51 and its power is there. It can be quite shocking,
obviously, to meet that and the spirit of the Self is always challenged by that shock. So, the first thing to
recognize is that we live in a time in which the global identity is very weak, because this is the foundation
of the Self in our era. "Please, Master, tell me who I am." During the transit of Mercury, we may discover
what selflessness is, which means to recognize the motives that are at the root of our actions. It may seem
selfless, but in reality is not.
25.2 The Existentialist
In these gates of love, we will see that we have certain lines which are unusual in their performance or
values. This second line is particularly so. It embodies the nature of what innocence really is. Innocence is
only possible existentially. There is no other way to be innocent. Following what we have seen about
collective love, that collective love is rooted in being oneself: selflessness, motivelessness, is rooted in the
now. Only in the now is one free of guile.
The Existentialist. Devotion and dedication to the now. Like all lower trigrams, the motivelessness is only
broken by the other side stepping in because this is the nature of the hexagram. The motivelessness is
there naturally - it is only broken by the other side stepping in. In this moment, what has been motiveless
and selfless can take on another nature. When somebody says to you, "You are so selfless," that is the
moment that your selflessness begins to disappear.
Mercury exalted. The perfection of the intellect through concentration and focus on what is, rather than on
what could be or has been. If you look inside the 25.2, you see somebody who is just in the now. They
don't know why they are doing the things that they do. They are just there in that process. This does not
mean that that is intellectual, or that they have that intellectual capacity. That is, some will and some
won't. It will depend on their design and on whom they meet. But the fact of the matter is that the longer
the 25.2 is allowed to be in its motivelessness, the more it will come to recognize ultimately, at the
intellectual level, what it means to be surrendered. Again, this is the nature of what universal love is all
about. Universal love is the acceptance that we are helpless in all of this and that all you can do is to not
interfere but be right there in the now.
On the other side, Mars in detriment, which by its very nature is immature. A dedication that can never be
free of personal motivation and its attendant projections. This is because of others. This is the moment
where the 25.2 is seen by somebody for what they are. "Oh, you have been so motiveless, so selfless, but
really, you should be rewarded." It is not that they just do this for nothing. They don't even know what
they are doing.
They are just in it, but the outside force is going to come on them and because of that, this projection
comes in. With projection, there is this mixing of terms where, all of a sudden, the individual, like the
abstract, is suddenly trying to figure out what the pattern is going to be. "If I stay selfless, I will become a
saint." That can only come from the outside coming in.
In the white book: The innocence of the Self and its protection can only be maintained in the now.
Because this is an overview line, these people are pulled out of the now all the time. When they are pulled
out of the now, they are shocked. Often it is projected on them that they had a motive all along, but they
did not.
The whole thing to see is that the love that can be generated out of these gates is what has been generated
for the benefit of the totality. It comes out of the individual, but it is there for the global whole. This 25.2
is a very beautiful motivelessness but, of course, it has to meet the world and because it is not equipped to
deal with the world, it can end up losing its innocence, which means it loses its existential nature.
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After all, regardless of the perspective of the driver, whether we are looking forward out of the window,
or whether we look backwards in the mirror or whether we are just simply there, we are all in the present
together. \% are all in the now of the experience together and the world is fundamentally existential,
whether we like it or not. The only way to be is to be in the now, whether we can or not, because we
simply are, regardless of our illusion.
25.3 Sensibility
The trial and error line is a deeply mystical line and, as such, it has quite a different value, in a way, at the
mystical level. It is an overview line. Sensibility. The recognition that innocent action does not in itself
guarantees success. This is not the 46. In my work with people, because I am somebody with the 25.3 and
the 51, I keep on reminding them that life is not about being happy. It is not about being successful. It is
not about any of those things because all of those things carry with them expectations, motivations and
rewards. It is simply about living your life; that is all.
One of the things that you learn in the 46th gate is that if you do live out your nature, you can be lucky.
That is, good things can come to you as well as bad things. But at least those things belong to you. So,
innocent action, being innocent, does not mean that life will be a success. By being existential, that does
not mean necessarily that you are going to be happy or sad.
Remember that this is individual and individual is melancholic and melancholy is about happy and/or sad.
It does not mean that life is going to be wonderful just because you are innocent. It can be a horror. There
are so many human beings in the world that are forced to live existentially and live at the edge of society,
moment by moment by moment. It can be a very unpleasant thing. Nonetheless, by living existentially,
one opens up the possibility for universal love in the world. This is the real surrender. Not "my will be
done," but "thy will be done." This is just to be here in the wave.
The nature of this line: this is a very profound line for our time because it is an indication that we live in
an era, up until 2080, in which it is really possible for us to transcend trial and error and reach wisdom.
The reason for that is that we do not have the detriment in this line.
Pluto in detriment. The potential loss of innocence through misfortune that in the extreme can manifest
from crime to suicide. Jiirgen and I went looking back to the era where Pluto was in Aries and was
activating this line. We looked for famous people. There were none. The only thing that we could find for
that date is the Brazilian Republic which I think lasted two years. Around this time, in 1820, we had the
growth of prisons. This was a direct result of Pluto being in the 25.3.
By the way, I want to add to my comment about the ego in this line in terms, of doing analysis for people.
If -you see somebody with a 25.3 who has an open ego, it does not work the same way. The 25.3 without
the power of the ego to be able to withstand the shock is going to have problems with its innocence. It
will get through because of the inactive Plutonic side, but the fact is that the ego is mentioned in Ibis way
here. It is essential to understand that a strong ego is something very important in that kind of
configuration. We live in pan era in which the shattering of innocence does not (lead to failure and crime,
does not lead to abuse, but does lead 'to what is always present in the 25th gate, which is (blood. This is
the gate of blood. This is the gate of the spirit of the life, the spiriit in the blood.
What we have instead of this Pk*omic detriment is a Mars exalted. 'The power of the ,Ego... Right away,
we have something interesting here because -we have been seeing -all along that whenever the ego is
imemtiomed, we get to see a detrimental impact on the nature of the Self. In other words, we get to see
the Self trying to be possessive and claim something, instead of just accepting the nature of what is. But
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here we have something very different: Mars exalted and particularly at its best in this sense. (Mars is
exalted in Aries anyway.) ... to withstand failure and still maintain its nature.
In my work, I have analyzed all kinds of things in the nature of my life and obviously, I paid a lot of
attention to imy experience with the Voice and the mechanisms at work. There is no question for me that
my survival of that was rooted in the fact that I have the 25.3, one of the many things that kept me alive in
that experience so that I was not destroyed. The fact that there was no Pluto there. The fact that there was
no possibility of that really becoming not only shattered by the experience, but criminal.
With the knowledge that I was given, I could have stayed secretly a black magician. I still could. The
knowledge that I was given, the things that I was told that I could do, the things that were possible with
the knowledge that was given to me; but I do not live in a Plutonic age where that criminality is
something possible, out of that shattering in the trial and error.
Remember that the third line does not know that there is something on the other side. It is not
transpersonal. It is different when you have the whole channel. That is what Initiation is all about. It is
about the recognition of that. But the fact is that the third line, by itself, does not know that.
In the white book: The power of the spirit to withstand failure and shock. Failure in its motiveless action:
in other words, that motiveless action suddenly is something that just falls apart. All right, that motiveless
action has to meet a more powerful force and is shocked. All right, it will find a way to maintain its
innocence, regardless of that.
25.4 Survival
The 46.4 is an exalted fourth line. It is the line of Impact. This 25.4 is its polarity; it is exactly opposite
the 46.4, and it is one of the most exalted lines that we are going to find. It is one these rare lines that has
a double exaltation, like in the 11.4. So you notice that in fourth lines, there are some very important
attributes simply because fourth lines can have a great deal of influence because they are one-tracked and
fixed on their process and they are transpersonal. Remember that this is the only gate of the Self pointed
to the ego and the relationship between the Self and the ego is one of the most important within our
vehicle. So, when you have a transpersonal line in the 25th gate, this 25.4 knows the ego on the other
side, knows what that ego is and what its power presents, and in that sense, it has the capacity over time.
This is an overview line: The nature of true innocence can be maintained regardless of circumstances. The
nature of true motivelessness. Here are people that are fixed (this is the harmony to the first line) and one-
tracked in their selflessness and, of course, this is the great exaltation. Again, because of the overview
line, you do not start off that way.
Venus exalted. The beauty of the rose in the garbage dump. One of my favorite lines in the Rave I Ching:
the beauty of the rose in the garbage dump, just for what it is. The manifestation, the one-trackedness, of
innocence can exist in any kind of decadence. It makes no difference.
In the white book: The spiritual warrior, the innocence maintained regardless of circumstances. Jupiter is
also exalted. What you have is that Venus establishes our basic morals and Jupiter writes the law. The two
of them together establish the framework of how societies and communities function. These two together
in this line, and we find them together in the fifth line again, is a very important connection. Whenever
you see Venus and Jupiter together in a line you know that is has a very strong impact on the way society
sees and functions. The highest principles even amongst the greatest decadence. There is no significant
difference in this language.
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There is no planet in detriment. What we have here is not only a fourth line that is by its very nature fixed
and onetracked, but by the nature of the line itself is fixed and one -tracked. There is only exaltation.
There is only this ability to maintain innocence regardless of the circumstance. A very beautiful line.
The wonderful thing about being one -tracked is if it stays on the track, it will arrive, like a train when it is
on the track: it will arrive. That is a security. The whole thing about being one -pointed when you are here
in an existentialist line is that, no matter what happens to you, you are always remaining existentialist;
that is the value here.
25.5 Recuperation
It is a very strange line. If the 46.5 is the weakest of the fifth lines, well, the 25.5 is not far behind. That is,
this is a line that is weak for a reason, in the sense that the only time that most human beings are
existential is when they are sick. Think about that. Think about the last time that you were ill. You were
right there in the sickness. You can't escape it. It is unpleasant. You don't like it. It does not allow you to
focus on the future. It does not really allow you to reflect on the past. It just keeps you stuck at being sick
and, in being sick, you are in the now and, in being in the now, you are finally being yourself.
Most human beings never come to themselves until they are sick. They do not come to themselves until
they are sick because the sickness that they have is because they are not themselves in the first place.
Because of that, in trying to heal themselves of that sickness, they are actually trying to come back to
themselves, without understanding it. The moment that somebody recovers from an illness is a moment
that they can start again to be themselves.
Of course, they immediately go out and take on the same kind of conditioning again and get sick again.
When they get sick again, they get thrown into the existential plane again, so they heal themselves on the
existential level. There is no other way to heal other than in the now because you know that you can't get
out until you are better. There is nothing you can do but be there.
So, this is a very strange line. It is a great line of projection. Everybody is lo8king to that fifth line and
projecting onto that innocence and motivelessness. "You are the innocent one. You are the motiveless
one. You have the spirit that I, or humanity, could use." The now is about being healthy.
Recuperation. When innocence is sapped of its vitality, healing... (This is the only line that speaks of
healing.) ... is the first priority. When somebody projects onto you, remember the harmony to the second
line and the problems with being brought to a place of motivation by others; here it is even stronger. What
you have here is other people wanting to project onto your innocence, wanting your innocence to be their
spirit. That takes strength away and, in taking vitality away, it takes away the vitality to be innocent in the
now, and the only way that you can avoid that is to withdraw.
Venus exalted. The ability to recognize the inner meaning of an affliction and to withdraw until it is
healed. In the white book: The power of the spirit to heal and be healed. Only when you are in the now,
only when you are being in the experience of your body, only when you are accepting your rhythm are
you healthy.
The mystery of this line is that healing oneself is about withdrawal from conditioning. This is what
healing is about: to withdraw from conditioning and to heal the conditioners. Jupiter in detriment.
Hypochondria and the need to be healed by others. This is something very important to understand. The
moment that your innocence is sapped of its vitality and the moment that somebody is projecting onto
your spirit, in that moment, you take in their conditioning and in the moment that you go for their
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conditioning, you become the sick one and they have to heal you. They, of course, heal you with what
does not belong to you and so you stay the sick one.
It is so important to understand what healing is really all about, that there is no need for anyone to be
healed as long as they are not taken away from their nature. The moment innocence is sapped of its
vitality, disease is in the world. So what that means is that as long as we are not being innocent, as long as
we are not being what we are, we create disease, we create illness, and it is a self-serving process.
After all, disease is one of the greatest employers in the world: hospitals, doctors, homeopaths, medicines,
factories, recuperations, spas, healers. All of that comes back to the same thing. Universal love is getting
down and realizing, "Hey, it is not up to me. All I have to do is to accept what it is to be me and I am
going to be fine. But the moment I try to be something else, the moment I try to accept the conditioning to
be something else, is the moment that I bring sickness into the world."
If you don't live out your rhythm, you take love away from the world. If you don't live in your body and
accept what it is to live in your body, you take away the capacity for success for humanity. The moment
that you do not live selflessly, motiveless, you bring disease into the world.
In the white book: The weakness of the spirit which requires healing from others. The fifth line is the line
of priesthood and doctors. It is the priesthood of the healing shaman. It is the priesthood of blame, the
blame that says, "You are sick because of this or that." That is both positive and negative. In other words,
sometimes it is the truth and sometimes it is sheer nonsense. This is one of the ways to try to find out how
we can be healthy. One of the things you will find about 25.5's is that they tend to be sickly.
25.6 Ignorance
Like any of these sixth lines we are dealing with, it is something that is outside of the basic nature of a
hexagram. It is withdrawn from it. It is sitting above. Keep in mind that all of these sixth lines are going
to flower soon. That is, when we step into the next cycle in 2027 and we are living in a sixth line- instead
of a first line-theme, this is going to be the flowering of that: the opening up of the emotional spirit
through the 55.6 and the beginning of a process in which sixth lines are going to come into a different
epoch and really be part of their time. So we are in a developmental process towards that time where sixth
lines come down from their roof tops and get involved.
Everything about the nature of the 25th gate started in the overview of the lines in the first place. It said:
The perfection of action.... When you come to the 25.6, you are dealing with a line that has a deep
perspective: it can look into the centering circuit. It can look into Integration. It can look into the whole
individual process and, as such, its vision, its ideal, is enormous by comparison. In order for it to make a
commitment to anything, it has to see that the value of mutation is there. Without mutation, motiveless
action does not mean anything. The whole substance then becomes useless. What action? What is the
action that requires us to be motiveless? What action is the perfection of motivelessness?
I am not somebody who spends much time, since the last 10 or 15 years, with what other people think
about the nature of what it is to be, but it is one of those extraordinary questions and so many great
thinkers are trying to come up with a formula. For me, it is clear that I am choiceless. It is the only thing
that I can see as the simplest way of discovering what it is to be. For me, here, in this sixth line, lies the
possibility to recognize choicelessness and to see that action is not something that has to be contemplated,
but action is something simply to be accepted, to be accepted without motive.
Ignorance. False innocence betrayed by actions. The Earth exalted. The milder of a negative position,
where inappropriate action is censured. These children find out very quickly that, no matter how innocent
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they are, if the actions are not right, they get to suffer a great deal and they become very careful, later in
their life, about what kind of action they engage in, to the point that they do not engage in action at all.
Uranus in detriment. Constant inappropriate and destabilizing actions whose very counter-productiveness
strips away the facade of innocence. It is not enough to be motiveless in one's spirit. One's actions have to
be pure and unmotivated. They simply have to be a by-product of being.
In the white book: The loss of innocence through inappropriate action, or Constant inappropriate action in
times of challenge that can break the spirit. The 25.6 goes to the 17.1, which is all about collecting
endless amounts of opinions. It is an openness to all kinds of stimuli. In other words: what has the 25.6 to
do? My god, there are a lot of actions in the world. There are so many different ways, different formulas.
The 17th gate is the great gate of organizing humanity. That is what it is there for. It comes back to the
question of: what is innocence? The 25.6 can always look at the activities of others and they see clearly
whether they are motivated or innocent. It can always tell. It has quite a gift in that sense. But for itself, it
is a very difficult process. Only when they see that action can be motiveless, only then it is possible for
them. It has to be concretized in their opinion. In other words, they have to see its value to humanity.
They have to see that it has a mutative quality.
These people often have their innocence broken but fortunately for them, they do not have the harmony to
the 3 in detriment because Pluto is not there, so they do not suffer deeply in their innocence being broken.
They simply pull away and withdraw. Withdrawal is one of the secrets of the 25th gate. Somebody who
only has the 25 has to learn to move themselves away from others. When I was giving name-groupings
for various hexagrams and I was putting together the hexagrams of aloneness (the 12, 33, 40)1 was very
tempted to add the 25. I did not because I thought it would confuse people. It is so important to
understand that the 25th gate is only at its best when it is alone because then it is innocent.
Limitation is everything for humanity. Limitation (the 60th gate, part of the individual circuitry) says that
there is a structure for everything. The only thing to recognize is the structure. Once you understand the
nature of structure, then you can find a way to see that whatever moves through that structure will be a
polarity, a binary like everything else in
life, but the structure is the framework. The framework for a 25, the structure, in the language of
individuality in the 43/ 23, is that when innocence is sapped of vitality, withdraw. Withdrawal means so
much to innocence because it brings one back to the self.
This is being in the cave, all by themselves. All that they say is, "I am now." They are pure innocence.
Withdrawal and aloneness have enormous value to the 25. The 25.6 is great at being a fool on the hill,
totally away from everything and quite common, in this day and age, watching television. Their favorite
line then is, "look at that phony."
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HEXAGRAM 26 THE TAMING POWER OF THE GREAT
We go from the small will (the 40) to the small ego. The small willpower in the 40 leads into the big
willpower in the 51 and the small ego in the 26 crosses over to the 21, the big ego. Here we deal with the
small ego. In sexual terminology, both the 40 and the 26 are gates of denial. They are fundamentally
weak. That is why they need their rest.
Think about the 26. We know that the instinctive side of tribal circuitry has to do with our organizational
groupings on the material plane, our work culture. The 26th gate is the gate of the marketing manager or
the sales person. One of the things that are so clear about the 26 is that while everybody else in the factory
is working really hard and struggling to get the products out on time, on a deadline, administrating the
organization and keeping the company happy, the 26 is on the golf course. It is playing golf and not doing
its business.
Please recognize that the ego cannot work the way in which everybody else who needs the ego wants it to
work. Everybody wants the ego to be like the root center or the sacral center, but it is not. It is very
different.
I have told students of mine before, in the Gray courses, that one of the cute little mysteries of our design
is that there is no direct connection between the ego and the sacral center. It there was one, we would not
die. It is because the sacral center, with a direct connection to the ego, will stop the ego from being lazy
and going to sleep. It just will.
The moment the sacral has a direct connection to the ego, the ego would not be allowed to say, "I am a
motor but I am not working today." Only the ego can do that because that is the kind of motor that the ego
is. The difficulty that society has with the ego is the assumption that willpower has to operate like sacral
power. It is not true. This is not a generator at all.
Written above the lines it says: The maximization of the power of memory applied to the nurturing of
continuity. The 26th gate is the gate of the egoist and it is the gate of exaggeration. The tribe expects to be
exaggerated to. It is very important for the tribe. It likes that. This is the best refrigerator, the best car, the
best country. Exaggeration is part of the way of getting the tribe to feel good. The 26th gate is the strength
or lack of strength to apply memory.
The whole thing to understand about the ego is that it is built on manipulation, and please do not think of
this as a bad word. It is simply the ability to manipulate things. There are very few gates that are called
'taming gates': The Taming Power of the Small (the 9th gate), to be able to take the broad spectrum of
energy and to focus, tame it, to tame the root and its pressure by focusing it; and here, the capacity of the
ego to manipulate instinctive memory.
Because it is a small ego, it also must be massaged and, while everybody else is working so hard, the boss
calls the salesman who is standing on the golf course with his cell phone. The boss asks, "Did you see the
client?' Hoh, yes," says the 26. "Of course I did." That may or may not be true. The 26 may want to see
that client, may think that they should see that client, but this is the ego and rest is important.
"I really don't have the juice," says the 26. Only when the ego is understood for that nature can it be
properly handled by 37's, 44's, 25's, or 45's. Until that is understood, there is only conflict with the ego.
26.1 A Bird in the hand
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The first line establishes the foundation of what the hexagram is all about. Here we find A bird in the
hand. The saying in English is, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." In other words, it is really
good to recognize what you have rather than trying to imagine what you could possibly get. This is one of
the great lessons for the egoist.
Neptune exalted. Whenever you see Neptune exalted in a first line you are allowed to shake your head
and wonder. This is a foundation line and Neptune does not allow you to see anything. So the egoist never
really gets into the foundation. They just sort of get confused about what it is to be them.
The ability to enjoy the dreams engendered by accomplishment in order to avoid delusion of unlikely
potential. Egoists make their living on what they can do. They make that living based on what they show
they can and have done. The moment that the egoist goes out for the company and makes a sale, they can
skate for weeks doing nothing, just floating along, feeling wonderful and living off that moment of
accomplishment. "Did you see what I did? I did that. At any moment I could do it again, if I am in the
mood. Treat me nice. Give me a good bonus. Allow me to go to the golf course." Meanwhile, everybody
in the factory is sweating.
Egos have a bad reputation for a reason. There are a lot of people dependent on the ego making the sale.
If they do not make the sale, the people in the factory cannot make their living, the stockholders do not
make any money, the boss gets fired. They are all sitting there waiting for the ego that is on the golf
course.
Mars in detriment. Accomplishment as a license for foolhardy risk taking. "I made that sale. Ain't I great?
I will quit and see if I will get a better job," or "I should really be the boss of this company."
The ego which transcends limitation through dreaming. This is one thing that is so wonderful about
manipulation of memory. The 26 dreams of being a 21 because the 21 seems to be in control of
everything and the 26 would love to be in control. "I am on the golf course four days a week. I work one
day." What I tell 26's is that it is so important in their working life that they make sure they have enough
leisure time because leisure time, vacations, are essential in order for them to be able to recuperate their
energy.
I know this so intensely in my personal life. I had Pluto defining my sacral center for seven years. It is
gone now and I am back to being ruled by my ego and I know what that feels like. It is very different. The
sacral pumps out the energy over and over. It is the ego that says, "Should I really do that? Maybe I'll just
rest today. I have been able to achieve this and that. I don't have to do anything. Now I can escape for a
while." That is what the ego does, so it can dream. The ego loves to dream. Let it accept what it has and
let it go off dreaming about what is possible because it is the dream that sells.
That is the gift of the 26 which it transmits to the tribe and, by doing so, it is able to bring the tribe the
nourishment that it needs. That is the foundation. They are not very good at being handled. I am a 26.1, so
whenever I would stop doing educational work when I was younger and got into business, it was always
very clear to me that there was always somebody trying to put a finger on my time and my energy and my
will. I am not very good at being handled.
44's do the handling for the 26's. If the 44 does not know how to handle a 26, enormous problems will
come into the organization. They simply do not function properly anymore. So this is interesting to
recognize: you are dealing with a lower trigram and their commitment to society. It is a gate of denial. "I
don't care about the people in the factory. I'll play golf today." This is not transpersonal.
26.2 The Lessons of History
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When you come to the second line, you come to the situation where you can be seen. The 26 is not just
the egoist, it is also the capacity to lie and to exaggerate: all of these things that are part of what is
necessary to get information to the tribe. People look inside of the 26.2 and they see them as being either
egoists or liars. These people are always being watched and they don't necessarily know that because
second lines do not have that kind of capacity. What they say, whether it is an exaggeration or not, can be
seen by others and, all of a sudden, they are paper tigers and suddenly meet somebody who says, "You
said that."
The lessons of history. The energy and depth of reflection to learn from the past in anticipation of the
future. They learn that if you lie, then you'd better have a very good memory because, otherwise, you will
get caught. 'Oh, entangled webs we weave, would first we practiced to deceive.' You will have to have a
good memory. This is what they learn. They don't think anybody is listening to them. "I have caught this
huge fish last night. It was an incredible thing. " The next day, their partner asks and it turns out that it was
not true and they don't even remember because they do not think that anybody has actually listened to all
that. But they are listened to because they can be seen as being an exaggerator, or being an egoist.
Pluto in detriment. The urge to take action despite the evidence of history. To try to continue with your
manipulation even when you have been found out. The whole thing about second lines is: they get found
out. That is not bad because if they get found out enough, they can end up being the best liars and, by the
way, being a liar is not bad. It depends on what you are lying about. By telling somebody, "This is the
best refrigerator that has ever been made," yes, it is a lie, but the., person who is buying that does not
want to hear, "This is the worst one ever made." Then you would not buy it. You don't want to hear, "This
is all right. It is okay.. It works." You don't want to hear that either. You want to hear somebody saying to'
you,, "I know that you are surprised) that it is only 1/1 Oth the priicef of a good refrigerator, but this is the
best one ever. You will save a lot of money and be happy. Besides that, your mother and your neighbor
bought one, so you must buy one too."
This kind of lie is something that is very productive in ourcommunities because that is-what we expect,
like on TV: "This product gets everything whiter than anythimg else." The tribe loves that. We all know
that it is a joke.. But we! don't want to be told, "This is a so-so cleaner." \4 want to be told that it is. the
best cleaner. The second) line gets found out but they discover that people are paying attention to them. In
discovering that; they have to be careful.
One of the things that 26's and 4N have to deal with in their life is the expectation of everybody else who
is.dependemt on their ego.. So they put their ego and their willpower to the test every time, like the athlete
that is pumped up one the! field: if the 40 makes a bad move, everybody is going to. boo them. They have
to take the burden of:everybody else's expectation. With the 26, everybody else has an expectation that
you are the only one that can sell the product. They are all depending on you. You have to take the burden
of that as well. The fact of the matter is that 26's seek out a way to get out of the pressure so that they can
recuperate their energy because the ego cannot work consistently, and then they go back in. In that space
in between this is where all the lying takes place. It is not just lying; it is sometimes nothing more than
exaggeration.
This whole business about stretching whatever the truth happens to be: the 26 and the 40 will do that in
order to protect their time, their energy and their ego from being shattered. When the 26 says, "This is the
best refrigerator, please buy it," one out of every fourteen people will say "yes." Thirteen say "no." That
26 has to deal with all of these no's. It is not so easy for that 26 to go back out into the world the next time
because they know that, in order to get to the place where everybody thinks they are so wonderful, they
have to go through a space where everybody thinks that they are terrible (the people who say, "Go away. I
don't need this.") This is quite a role. The 26's are suppliers for the community.
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Someone who is just operating out of an undefined ego that gets pumped up by somebody else, blurts
these things out and has no idea. Somebody with an ego not connected to an awareness system within
them has no idea and no way of reflecting upon it. Yes, they can get very much caught up in the
exaggeration itself and live it out.
Of course, all the lower trigrams here get shocked anyway because the lower trigram will always meet the
outside when it is least expected. So the 26.2 who does not think anybody is paying attention to it is on
the golf course and suddenly meets the boss. The boss says "I thought you were with Mr. Jones." It is this
moment where they get found out. This happens to them. "Mr. Jones died."
I have trained sales people and they all lie, otherwise they could not do their job. They have to lie to
themselves, too, just to give themselves the courage to go back out into the world and to deal with people
that reject them. After all, we expect of the ego what no other center is expected to deal with. The ego is
expected to deal with abuse, rejection. The jobs that no other center wants, they give to the ego. The ego
will protect itself. It is unaware, so it uses the tools that are inherent to it.
26.3 Influence
This third line is an overview line like the 40.3. It is telling you that through trial and error, through
adaptation, you have a lifelong process. The ability, once prepared, to gather support. 'Once prepared': it
is a long-term process. These people really have a gift. Third lines are always the harmony to wisdom in
the sixth line. The third line can develop through trial and error the kind of techniques that will allow it to
manipulate memory, so that they can successfully serve the community.
The Sun exalted. The authority to focus communal effort. They have to learn this. Remember something
about the 26. The vast majority of the time, because the ego is unaware, this capacity to exaggerate, to
transmit to the community, to enlarge things in order to make them attractive, can become what we call
lying. But, at the same time, the 26 is capable of great truth, like all tricksters. They can tell you as great a
truth as they can tell you a great lie because this is what is inherent in their capacity.
The Saturn in detriment. There is nothing more to the point than a salesman that walks into the office and
quits, saying, "I'll tell you why nobody can sell this product." They will tell you the truth and they will put
it to you so clear that you cannot miss it. You can close down the factory and do something else.
The leadership, while gathering support, will underestimate potential challenges. This is one of things
about the ego: The ego gets carried away and it is vulnerable. It either does too much or it ignores the
demands and threats that can come to it from others. Whenever you see terminology like 'threat' here,
basically all this is talking about is demands that are made on this gate. The ego is always faced with
demands being made on it, either the demands within itself (it depends on the design) or, most often, the
demands that are coming from the outside.
In the white book: The power of the ego to gather support. It takes time for that ego to develop that
strength and only when it develops that strength can it gather support. Understand something about the
ego: it is at its strongest when it can accept rejection. This is the only time that the ego is truly strong. No
ego is strong that suffers from rejection. It is not possible. If you go out into the world and you are trying
to get others to be interested in something, the ratio of those who will actually be positive with you is very
small. Rejection is something that is inherent for the ego to learn about. It is why the ego likes to be left
alone a lot, because when it goes out there into the world, it will have to deal with that quality of life that
always brings rejection into its life. The ego is unable to recognize the challenges or the potential in
others, or the potential challenges in others, certain demands on the ego.
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The whole thing about this third line is that you can learn through trial and error how to use your ego to
influence the collective, but the moment that somebody sees that you have that gift, they want you to do
that for them as well. Not only that but once they figure out what you are doing, they want to take it from
you. Egos are always being challenged by competition. Always. Otherwise we would not have a patent
office.
26.4 Censorship
The upper trigram gives us a transpersonal, manipulative skill. In other words, when you deal with the
fourth and fifth lines in the 26, you are dealing with people who really do have a deep skill in them to
transmit to the tribe, to be able to propagandize or market or take to the tribe.
My nickname for the fourth line of Censorship is 'the Chernobyl line.' It is a very funny line. Listen to
what it says: The alteration of memory through elimination. It is an overview line which means that it
takes time in life. The memory system, what you remember, is changed by slowly removing things. It is
like, by the time you actually give your resume to somebody that you want a job from, you have left out
the jobs you don't want them to know about. This is the elimination of memory that comes over time.
Pluto exalted. The ability through censorship to save the collectivity from itself. In other words, you have
somebody in a hospital in Hamburg and the doctors think that it is, possibly the Ebola virus. If that were
actually true,, it would create an enormous dilemma within the community.. So when the doctor says,
"Until I am really sure, I am mot going to. tell) anybody. I am going to save! the collectivity from itself,,
from its panic." That is one side. That is the positive side.
When you get to the Saturn in detriment (Chernobyl): The use of censorship to maintain the status quo;
selective memory in fear of unrestrained consequences. "No, there was no accident in the nuclear pliant,,
as far as we know everything is, time." This is not letting out the information, out of: fear of what will
happen if that information gets out.
I am using large examples, of this. In a human being, what that means is that, on the exalted side, there
are things that are left behind that should be left behind because it is; healthier.. In the detriment, things
are left behind that may not make! yaw healthier because they are left behind, but regardless, these are not
people that should ever have post life therapy, they should not have hypnotism or rebirthing sessions..
They should not go through any of these things because what is left behind, what is forgotten, is
important to leave forgotten far these people.
In the white book: The power of the ego maintained through forgetting. Take the example of a
salesperson. If you have to do a sales job and the last sales job you had, you were a failure and you were
fired and you could not make your living, it is a good idea not to remember how bad all that was. It is a
good idea just to put that aside and just see what will happen in the next job. In other words, for the
strength of the ego, for these people, it is important that certain things are forgotten.
The other side of this: The power of the ego maintained through selective memory. It is the selective
memory that can be detrimental. These people forget things, i.e. they forget to tell you that there was a
phone call because, in their imagination, that call might be disruptive for you and they don't want to be
the source of that disruption. So they just selectively forget to tell you that there was this phone call from
your banker, the police, or the doctor. In other words, this censorship works at many different levels. For
the 26.4 person it is healthy to forget, but it is unhealthy for the others. Someone with the 26.4 makes you
uncomfortable because you know that there is something they are not telling you. That is when the 44
comes along and pulls it out, just like the 37 can pull it out of the 40.
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26.5 Adaptability
What is often misunderstood about the 26 and the 40 is that they are enormously involved with other
human beings. These are deep human-contact gates because the tribe is dependent on the ego. So these
gates, because they are the only way for the tribe to get into that ego system, have to deal with all kinds of
human and social pressures. Whenever I see someone who has the 26.5, I always say to them: "You
know, you are made for Human Design."
If there is a line of all the 384 lines that says that you should study Human Design, it is the fifth line of
Adaptability. This is what the outside projects onto this capacity of the egoist. Here in this projection we
have: The understanding of mechanics and the application of energy to achieve maximum potential. If
you don't understand human beings, if you don't understand how things work, then you are not going to
be able to properly manipulate the information and get it out. You have to know how people work.
I had a job once where I had to make two hundred phone calls a day. It was in a newspaper office and I
was in my early twenties. I had an old Dutch boss and he had made millions of dollars doing this job. He
was training me because he intended to retire. He told me, "If you make two hundred calls a day, you are
going to get twenty that say yes." By the way, if you make two hundred phone calls a day and you are the
world's best salesperson, twenty will say "yes." The capacity is about being able to accept those one
hundred eighty "no's". I have had so many phones slammed down on me, so many people say, "No, don't
bother me." I did that for two years in my life. I probably spoke to half a million of people. I probably had
four hundred ninety thousands of, "Go away, no." I made a lot of money. This is what the ego is all about:
to understand the nature of human beings. When I pick up the telephone and I hear somebody's voice, I
can tell you so much just when I hear their voice.
Everything about the capacity to have influence on the tribe is the ability to understand the nature of
human beings, how they work and what they need and how to satisfy those needs, how to explain to
somebody what they need and that you can do it for them.
Venus in detriment. A resistance and dissatisfaction when basic changes to nature are necessary. This is
all about being forced to learn techniques. Remember that the fifth line gets projected on. Everybody
says, "You can be great at this," but that does not mean that you have the tools that it takes. The tools that
it takes are, that the moment that you step in there, you really have to understand other human beings.
In the white book: The power of memory which maximizes the potential of the ego to attract others; and
The resistance of the egoist to adaptation. The moment that these people that have to learn techniques
have to change their technique, they are very uncomfortable. So the 26.5 in detriment, when they have to
learn a new way of dealing with people or of doing their work, they are very uncomfortable; they really
do not want to have to adapt to that. Understand mechanics.
26.6 Authority
The whole thing to recognize about the nature of the sixth line that is sitting on the roof is to look at what
they meet in their next step, which is the 11.1 in this case. It is the gate of ideas and the first line is called
Attunement. That first line of attunement is about the concept of being in the right place at the right time.
One of the most frustrating things for the 26.6 is that it is trying to figure out exactly the right time and
place because everything about the 26.6 is the recognition that the ego only gets respect through its
correctness of action, only then can it truly be an authority. Here we have an overview line. It is a lifelong
process.
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Authority The natural attainment of influence justified by the correctness of actions. What this represents
is the legitimate ego. I have no problem with my ego in terms of being able to see that I have some kind
of accomplishment in my life. The ego tends to be justified. This is all about the value of the ego as a
motor, justified by the correctness of his action, that the ego in this doing is correct. If it works to the
benefit of the community, to the material benefit of the 26, if it is correct, if they are in the right place at
the right time, this is perfect.
Well, you don't get it all the time. The 26.6, after trying when they are young to assert their ego and
control others, they give up and they go and sit on the cosmic fence and they watch the movie, waiting for
that possibility that perhaps there is a right place and that there is a right time to fulfill the potential of the
tribe.
The Sun exalted. The embodiment of reason and purpose that posses the test of time. This means that the
ego has to be consistent; what it produces has to be of value. In the end, the ego is there to make sure that
the tribe is healthy, that the tribe has enough to eat, that the tribe has shelter and all the other things that
are part of the ego's responsibility in the tribal structure.
The Moon in detriment attains Authority as a symbol and focus but not necessarily as a true embodiment.
The constitutional monarch, stripped of real power but still the symbol of continuity of authority. These
people are always separate and they can be very inspiring, ego-wise, yet they themselves don't do
anything. They are still waiting for their opportunity to really be in the right place at the right time.
Always remember in any kind of reading: when you come to a sixth line, don't expect it to act like the
hexagram. It will do so when it is young because it has to learn, but it will not do so later. It will hold
back. A sixth line sees the whole circuit. This 26.6 is looking at the whole tribal circuit which says: "I
have to serve and protect the people." So, unless what it is doing is correct, unless it can end up being of
service and being protective for the tribe, for the community, for those who are dependent, then there is
nothing to do. "Why should I use my ego power to sell soap when it is not going to be productive and be
of value to the community?"
The strong ego whose influence is justified by the correctness of its actions; or The expression of the ego
as a role whose influence is symbolic and lacks authority. Most 26.6's look like the detriment; very few
live out the exaltation. Other ego people coming into contact with them, but particularly undefined egos
are deeply impressed because they seem to have enormous ego power but seem to be unusually humble
because they don't do anything with their ego. They don't feel like they have to push it out because there
is no sense in doing that unless there is the right moment.
Remember something about the ego motor: the ego motor will just stop working. It just will. It will take a
break. In the 26.6, like in the 40.6, it can take a break for life. It steps out until it meets a 44.6 in its
aloofness. The two of them will look at each other and say, "You are not involved either; maybe we
should do something." The 26 is pointed to awareness whereas the 40 is just pointed towards emotions.
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HEXAGRAM 27 NOURISHMENT
Looking at the sexual roles in the sacral center, our roles or strategies in forming union, we come to the
27th hexagram, Nourishment. We come to the sexual role that we have in caring. This is quite different.
On one side of the sacral, we have the reproductive capacity to be able to produce children and bring them
into the world. When you come to the other side, to the channel of Preservation, this is about nourishing
them, nurturing them, feeding them, allowing them to become healthy contributors in their society.
You can see here that in the 27th hexagram, like in the 59th hexagram, each of these lines represent a
role. Following the same process, line by line, that we have seen in the roles of the 59th hexagram, we see
again the progression of how the lines work.
In the first line, we see the role of self-provider and coveter, the one that can provide and the one that
needs, the one that is strong and the one that is weak. The role of the second line is the role of the
nourisher or the depleter, one who nourishes and one who takes away. The third line: the role of bonds
made and broken. This consistency of the third line is always this trial and error. Here, the trial and error
that takes place in caring. The fourth line: the fixedness that we saw in friendship on one side, the
confident, or not. Here it is the benefactor and on the other side the dependant, the same process, but in
the language that is applied to caring rather than a language that is applied to our sexuality. The fifth line,
the universalization, nourishment as distribution or hoarding. Those that can put it out and those that
constantly need to take it in at that level. And finally, the sixth line, the transition line, is all about trust.
Can I trust caring? Is it worthwhile to care or not?
The ultimate sixth line question is: "Is there anything that I can trust? And if so, what is it? And if it is
true, prove it to me so that I can really know for sure that there is something that I can trust. " The question
of the 59.6 is: "Can I trust this moment of being in love, or attracted?" The question of the 27.6 is: "Can I
trust that caring is really beneficial and worthwhile? Can I trust this person to share in that union of
caring?" Trust is a big question of the sixth line.
Above the lines in the black book it says: The enhancement of the quality and the substance of all
activities through caring. The quality of all activities is enhanced through caring. Caring is fundamental
for any process and that is the nature of this hexagram: the enhancement of all activity through caring.
27.1 Selfishness
The first line always establishes a foundation. When we were dealing with the sixth line of the 3rd
hexagram which is called Surrender, the very next hexagram is the 27.1. This line is called Selfishness.
Think about what caring is all about. The foundation of caring is Selfishness and if you look at this line, it
has the Sun exalted and the Earth in detriment. Whenever you see Sun/Earth together in the same line,
you know that this line has enormous impact. It is speaking for one of the basic structures that we have:
Sun above/Earth below. (The other lines with the Sun exalted and the Earth in detriment are: 8.2, 12.6,
14.6, 15.2, 20.3, 23.4, 29.5, 31.1, 38.3, 40.6, and 48.4. There is one line with the Earth exalted and the
Sun detriment: 9.3.)
Here, the Sun exalted. The ego-driven first law of caring for oneself which is not necessarily at the
expense of others. First lines have to know what it is to care. Caring begins at home. It begins with
yourself; it begins with your own life. To care for yourself is to enhance the quality of your own life. This
is where it begins. Selfishness is not bad. It is the foundation of caring. First you have to care for yourself.
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The Earth in detriment. Envy and its attendant misfortunes. In the white book: The power to care for
oneself first. You cannot give to anyone unless you have looked after yourself first. One the other side,
we have: The power of selfishness that is manifested through envy. "I cannot look after myself. I want
somebody to look after me. I wish I could look after myself the way they do."
You are always going to have the other side of this energy. We are a binary. Every single step along the
genetic path goes into two different directions all the time. There are some of us who recognize
intrinsically that we have to care for ourselves first and there are the others in our society who say, "I can't
care for myself. Somebody has to care for me." This is the preemptive strike. This is weakness and
strength. The strong ones can care for themselves and the weak ones cannot.
27.2 Self-sufficiency
The first line is aware of its capacity to care because it is looking inwards. When you get to the second
line and you get to projection, it projects out that it cares. When I make certain kinds of statements, they
sound very strong and they are not intended to be frightening but the reality is that the second line of the
27 and all of the lines of the 27 but the second line particularly can lead to all kinds of disease and all
kinds of health problems, all kinds of physical problems. All these things are rooted here in this 27th gate
and the nature of caring. One of the things that are clear is that when caring is not evident, there are all
kinds of atrophy that take place. If you have somebody who is dying and you have nobody who cares for
them and there is nobody who imbues that caring in them, there is very little within that will hold on to
the life process. Caring itself carries an enormous power with it: the power to enhance the quality of life.
The second line does not really know whether it has the equipment to care and because of that, it is
constantly projecting out the caring. When people first read this line, they think that it is wonderful. Self-
sufciency. The obvious law that to give, one must have. But the second line does not know that. The first
line does.
The Moon exalted. The Mother. The great nourisher. These are nourishers who do not know how much
they can nourish. Think about what that means: you have a certain amount of resources within you and
there is somebody who is tapping into those resources and if you are a second line, you don't know how
far you can go. In other words, you can end up emptying out all your resources until you get found out,
like all second lines, and you collapse because you have been depleted and you are sick.
Remember that the 27 is directly pointing towards our immune system and our health system. This is the
nourishment of our immune system and, without proper caring, our immune system does not work
properly. So, in this second line where there is this projection outwards, there is no sense of how much I
can give; nor is there, in the detriment, any sense of how much I can take.
The 27.2 in the detriment is: Weakness that can sap the strength and power of others. These are people
who are projecting out their need for caring and they are constantly pulling in. This is the child that
constantly keeps on demanding his mother's breast, whether that child needs to be fed or not. It is
constantly demanding until the mother gets a breast infection and ends up with all kinds of pain and there
is no more milk available for the child. Nature steps in at some point and says, "Wait a minute," but it
steps in with the mother being sick.
The reality is that when you are dealing with the second line of the 27, there is something to be aware of:
These people do not have any sense of what the limit is. That is true of all second lines. That is why they
end up in those situations of getting caught. By the way, we live in a time now where we have the great
veiling planet of Neptune sitting in the 60th gate, the gate of limitation. There are all kinds of people who
do not know where their limitations are right now. In the same way, they do not know how many
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resources they have. They do not know necessarily how far they can go because the whole business of
where the boundaries are suddenly is covered by this veil.
This is the way the second line operates here. In this second line, because it is so important, this is caring,
this is enhancement. Because it is such an important dominant field in the tribe, it leads to all kinds of
problems because you have people that are being sucked out and you have people that are just doing all
that sucking in. Both of them can become very unhealthy.
Next thing, now that I have said that, is do not take a moralistic judgment: "Oh, boy, they have the 27.2."
It is so important to understand that it is necessary for us to go through all these processes. Each and
every one of them has their value. If you are somebody who is getting succor from the nourishing mother,
it can be quite wonderful and that caring can be marvelous. It may be hell for the nourishing mother but it
can be wonderful for the recipient who says, "Yes, she died, but she was great. She looked after me. She
made my life possible." There is always the other side of all these things. Don't bring your judgments in.
27.3 Greed
When we get to the third line, bonds made and broken, this whole process of trial and error, this line is
called Greed. When people see that, they get upset. Everything about the 27th hexagram is about living a
better quality of life. That is why you have the cliche of parents who say, "I will make the world better for
my children than it was for me." They are going to enhance the quality of life.
The third line, because it is a trial and error line and because it is all about adaptation, is trying to figure
out how you have the right kind of caring so that you can get the right kind of enhancement in your life.
Because they are looking for this enhancement, they will go through trial and error; they go through what
appears to be an obsessive kind of process to try to find the right caring. They are constantly breaking the
bonds of the caring because they keep on looking for what will really enhance the quality of their life.
Please understand that life is a very difficult thing. We all know that. Caring enhances the quality of our
process and makes it easier for us to live with the ordeal. Every human being needs somebody who is
going to care about them and about what happens to them because it helps bring about an enhancement of
the quality of their life. We are not here alone. This channel is deeply altruistic. It is not about finding
enhancement for oneself but to provide that to the tribe through the law that is on the other side of this in
the 50th gate.
71he obsession with having much more than one needs. Literally, it is not enough that II know about this
coring. Is there someitlniirng that can make my life even better and enhance it even more? That is the
other side of this.
Pluto exalted. Here, the psychological manifestation. The obsession and dependency on ,knowing what is
hidden. The secret policeman. This is Sigmund Freud's line. In the white book: The power derived
fromhavingmore than one needs, whether sexually, mentally or materially. Remember that it is 'more' in
the sense of caring more sand having ,a better quality dfllilfe. It is all -about enhancement and, in the end,
what the first three lines don't iunderstand is that on the other side there is the law (floe 50). Caring has to
submit to the law because the (law controls the frequency and the law controls the awareness.
The caring that is corning out of the 27 is just a genetic rdle. "I mood -to care about all these things. If I
don't, I wiil not have a better life. I need to, even to the paint that I will go around secretly and find out all
of these things."
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On the other side df -this: The lust for power to get more than one needs. By the way, it also has the
dbvious value of wanting more and more caring, but it is not-the same as the second line. The second lime
wants more and more from tine very same person, as an example. The third line wants more from you and
more -from the next one and the one after that one. It is a different process.
If you look at the second, the third and the fourth line, they all have Mars in detriment and one of the
things that are clear to me is that Mars is a great disease initiator. Mars can always initiate illness out of
its immature energy. When you look at this third line in the black book and you look at the Mars in
detriment: Mundane and wholly without redeeming value, greed, a lust that inevitably cripples and
addicts. The reality is that within this bonds being made and broken and looking for the enhancement in
life, there is also the reality that you may not find it and then you become addicted to finding the kind of
caring and the kind of knowledge you need to allow you to care, the kind of thing that will make you feel
better, the kind of thing that will allow you to feel good in caring.
These are people that become addicted to all kinds of things: to drugs, to certain kinds of situations, and
they can be crippled by that, unable to care for themselves, deeply depressed because they cannot find the
enhancement in life. They cannot see how they can take their ordinary life and give it a quality that allows
them to feel good about what it is to be alive. That is what caring is for. Though the third line, unlike the
second line, does not lead directly to sickness, the result is that the third line in its detriment will lead
indirectly to illness. The moment that there is this inability to see that life can be okay, that there can be
this better quality in life, there is this obsession with trying to find out how you can make it better. If you
take a look at Freud (I mentioned his name as part of that, he has the exalted, fixed), you can see that: to
seek out obsessively, to understand everything that was hidden underneath in order to find out how to
care. You find it out through trial and error, through adaptation, and only at that point where you can find
that out can you begin to work with that process.
The people who have the detriment do not have a way of finding out what they need to know and they do
not really have a focus for finding out what they need to know. They keep going from one thing to the
next, waiting for that moment where they find it. In that, it can lead to all kinds of physical problems in
their life.
27.4 Generosity
Just like the fourth line of the 59, when you get to the upper trigram here, you are dealing with channels
that are really about our connection with others, about our intimacy with others, our nourishing of others
and yet, in the first three lines there is really an inability to understand what the other is all about. In this
case, the other is the 50th hexagram, the establishment of what the values are. It is the establishment of
what the law is. When you get to the fourth line, it knows that there is something else at the other end. It
knows that there are values over there and that there is awareness over there. It recognizes that what it has
to offer is that it has this power of enhancement to offer, caring. It can offer this.
This is the line of Generosity. The natural sharing of attained abundance. Please understand that. It goes
back to the first line, to its resonance that says, "First you have to look after yourself, and then you can
give." When you get to the fourth line, it talks about the sharing of abundance. This is not somebody who
can be depleted. This is somebody who can only give once the abundance is there and attained, and then
they are ready to share that energy.
Jupiter exalted. Magnanimous and qualitative sharing. The gift of rewarding those who are deserving. But
they are very focused. What these people are focused on is, "I have to care." That is their whole trip.
Everything else is put aside. They have to care.
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When you get to Mars in detriment, you get to this third example of the impact that Mars can have on us
in terms of destabilizing our well-being. Remember that this is a gate that is opening up to the immune
system. Mars in detriment. Indiscriminate sharing. That is going to bring the wrong people into your life.
The wrong people coming into your life can make you sick.
There are three kinds of illnesses that are rooted here. In the second line, that illness is built right in
through not recognizing what the barriers are. When you get to the third line, the illness is secondary. It
comes from the ordeal of trying to find the right quality of life and stumbling along the way and, when
you stumble, you can really get hurt and ill. When you come to this fourth line, it is about bringing the
wrong people into your life. This brings disease into your life. This line is notorious for sexual
transmission. Somebody comes into your life and they give you gonorrhea. This is about bringing the
wrong people into your life through indiscriminate sharing. Just because you can care does not mean that
you have to care for everyone. This is the Martian side, the immaturity in caring.
In the white book: The power and strength to share generously; or The potential loss of sharing through
indiscriminate sharing. Bring the wrong people into your life and those people make you sick.
I am involved with in a long term project which is called 'The Global Incarnation Index' and it has to do
with our incarnating crosses that we come in on. The 27th hexagram is part of a cross that is called the
cross of The Unexpected and the 27.4 is one of the great classic lines of the unexpected. Many years ago,
Martin Grassinger made some charts for me of the discovery of Pluto, Uranus and Neptune. In all those
cases, the Nodes were in 27.4 and 28.4. When the comet 'Shoemaker Levy' banged into Jupiter, the Nodes
were in 27.4/28.4.
If you look at charts of people who carry this energy, they are always capable of releasing the unexpected,
which is both positive and wonderful and horribly frightening in this line. You can get the unexpected
gonorrhea; you can also get the unexpected caring. All of a sudden, there is somebody there who really
cares and is offering you that caring. "I did not know that you cared. Really?" It is suddenly out of
nowhere. The unexpected is always part of this process.
27.5 The Executor
When you start with the first line, it tells you about the essence. We saw that the essence is about looking
after oneself, and when you get to the fifth line, you get to the way the world projects on that. The world
projects on the 27 as the executor. Someone who is carrying the 27.5 has someone on the other side
saying, "They care. I know that they care." This projection is going onto them. They may, or they may
not. In the same way that you can project on the 59.5 that that is somebody you can love but you don't
know whether they are going to love you back, here is somebody that you project on that they really care
but you don't know if they really do. You don't know because it is a projection.
The Executor. The ability to distribute effectively the resources of others. This is what caring is about for
the mythology of our planet. Caring is about somebody who takes the responsibility to make sure that
others are nurtured properly. That is what caring is supposed to be all about.
Jupiter exalted. Either the gifted and principled agent of distribution or the good sense and ability to find
one. "Yes, I know that you think that I really care but that is not something I can care about. I'll send you
to somebody who will care about that." The doctor who is an eye specialist sends you to a nose specialist
saying, "That is not my field, but they care for you over there."
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On the other side, Saturn in detriment. A restrictive nature that hampers distribution or the seeking of
advice and assistance. Again, this is the concept of the paper tiger. This is somebody who is projected on
that they can really care, but they themselves know that they don't. That does not come out.
In the white book: The power and strength to care for the resources of others, or Weakness and the risk of
loss of power restrict caring. They will lose their power if it is shown that they cannot really care or if
they cannot really be the executor. One of the things you see, just like the love of the Casanova gigolo
that has become themes in literature, so is the executor who doesn't care about you and puts the money in
their pocket. We have all kinds of stories running around about, "Yes, I trusted this person to look after
my interests." They look after their own interests and then they go to jail because the law catches up with
them, telling them, "You were supposed to look after that person's money and you put it all in your own
pocket," and they lose their power in the end.
I remember this great story in New York City about a day care center. There was this day care center
which was supposed to look after children and the people who were running this center were starving the
children so that they could make money from the food. They were starving the children. Typical of the
27.5: you project on them, "They really care." It is called 'being taken for a ride.' The 59.5 and 27.5 are
really capable of taking you for a ride because you are projecting on them and you don't get to see what is
really there. By the way, in putting it this way, also understand that they are the universalizing agents.
They may in fact be great executors, but like everything having to do with anything, you can't go in
blindly. It is not just a projection field that you can accept and believe.
27.6 Wariness
When we come to the sixth line, we come to Wariness. Again, this is a transition line. It is the end of the
process. This line says: A protection against an abuse of generosity.
The Moon exalted. A practical and realistic approach to nurturing, whose appropriateness is guided by
feelings and instinct. Pluto in detriment. A tendency to be overly suspicious.
Whenever you are looking at the 27.6, there is only one thing that can really stand out there which is that
the whole thing about this process is: Can you trust, or not? It is all about trust. It is all about seeing
whether caring is of any value, if it is really having its proper effect. Is it going to work properly? Is it
going to enhance the quality of life? The 27th hexagram goes to the 50th hexagram which carries all of
the basic frequencies of awareness that occupies our whole process. In other words, coming out of that is
a basic fundamental question which is, "Can I trust anything in this life process? Can I trust caring? Can I
trust the law? Can I trust awareness? Can I trust what I am taking in?"
In the white book: The power and strength to be realistic in one's capacities to care and nurture. That
realism can be very intense. It can be so intense that it is saying, "All right, I am looking at that but if I
care for you, what will that do to the quality of life for all of this?" So often the only thing that people
with the 27.6 can care about are very broad, almost idealistic things, where they see that there is really
something worthwhile in caring about that. You cannot go to these people and say, "We have all these
starving babies in Africa, could you give me ten bucks." If you try to get ten dollars from the 27.6, that is
not so easy. "Well, yes. I know. But if I give you this money, out of those ten dollars, seven will go to
administration, two dollars go to taxes and three cents will go to the baby that is dying in Gabon. No,
thank you. I won't do that. I don't trust you and I don't trust that this caring will manifest in the world. I
don't think that it is of any value."
The whole thing about the sixth line is that it is looking for the awareness to confirm for it, to establish in
law, that if we do care, it is going to be productive. It is like all of these agencies over the last few years
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that are involved in humanitarian causes. The first thing they realized is that by the time that they get their
stuff on the ground somewhere, there are people stealing it. There are people making money from it.
There are all kinds of stuff going on.
The sixth line looking at the law on the other side says, "Okay, when I can care and I know that my caring
is actually going to enhance the quality of life, then I'll care. If you say to me that I can give those ten
dollars directly to that child, I will do that. But I will not give it three cents so that you can make your
living off it and I don't trust you. You do not really care. You only care for yourself."
The sixth line is always going beyond and it sets a standard here because this is the energy for the basic
process of our awareness. It says, "Is there anything to trust?" and only in the moment that you begin to
recognize that there are things that you can trust can you begin to care.
I know this so intimately in my work. I deal with people who do not know themselves, and in the nature
of our work, in the nature of doing an analysis, I bring them to what is reliable in them, what is consistent,
what is in that sense trustworthy. The moment that they can see what is reliable and trustworthy, they can
begin to care for themselves again because the disease of the world is self-hatred and self-suspicion.
There is sickness in all the lines of the 27. The deepest sickness here, in the 27.6, is the thing that says, "I
don't trust anything and because of that I can't really care about anything. "
I lived my life with the 20.6 which is the line of Wisdom. I never trusted any of my knowing. Knowing
was never enough for me. I was very smart. I knew a lot of things but I did not trust any of it because I
knew that if I can say this, I can also say that. There was nothing to trust. When I went through my
mystical experience and I was given an absolute in the sense of the Maya and I could see that this
absolute was consistent, it gave me something to really care about. It gave me something to care about
that I'd never cared about in my life: you, people, other human beings, that they can be informed. I was
never interested in doing that other than from the moment that I could see that it was worth caring about.
All sixth lines are like that. I am very lucky. I get to do that in my lifetime: to live out the value of the
sixth line. Not everybody gets to that point and it is very important to understand that. The moment that
you get to a sixth line, no matter where it is, this question comes up: "Shall I really commit myself? Is it
really worthwhile? Can I trust this process? Will it take me where I want to go?" This is always the case.
So whenever you see sixth lines, do not jump to any conclusion about that line coming out. It may never
come out until there is really something that one can trust in, worth caring about as a value.
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HEXAGRAM 28 PREPONDERANCE OF THE GREAT
Here, we move to the individual process and we stay with awareness as potential. Rather than taking you
through the natural stream of all of these potential gates, that is, rather than going from the 32 to the 44,
which I leave to you in your own process, I want to show you the harmonies that exist, not simply line for
line throughout but to recognize that all three of these potentials (the 32, the 28 and the 1 8) are doing the
same job. They are just doing it differently. We have looked at the instinctive potential in the 32. Now we
come to the channel 28/38, to the channel of Struggle, to a design of Stubbornness.
Wte come to the 28th gate, The Preponderance of the Great, the gate of the game Player. The potential is
the awareness to struggle, or not. Individuality is acoustic, so it is literally the ability to respond
acoustically and, in that response, we have the awareness whether to struggle or not. Not the awareness to
transform or not. Because this is spontaneous, it is taking place existentially, in the now. The awareness
potential is the stubbornness to listen, to make sure that one listens so that one can take the best possible
risks.
This is all about risk taking. The 28th gate represents a primal fear in us: the fear of death. That fear is to
be understood as a fear of whether or not life is of value. Just as the 32 is afraid that their work in this life
will be a failure, the 28 is afraid that their way in this life will be a failure, that is, that they themselves,
their lives and what they live for is not really worthwhile. This is one of the deepest themes of
individuality: to see whether life is really of value or not, and this is rooted here in the 28th gate.
In the heading of the 32nd gate we find that the only thing which endures is change. When we come to the
heading of the 28th hexagram, it says: The transitoriness of power and influence. It is the same thing. It is
all about change and evolution. It is an ongoing process. The transitoriness of power and influence is what
the Preponderance of the Great is all about.
28.1 Preparation
We know that the nature of the first line is introspective. It is looking inward and the first line in the 28 is
called Preparation. The desire to be effective manifested in the application of energy to detail. If you look
at the 32.1, it says: A life sustaining respect and attention to all aspects of a process. We are talking about
the same process; the only thing is that this is individual. The change that has to be endured in the 32 is
tribal. It is all about support. It is all about the tribe.
This is an individual process where we have Venus in detriment. The aesthetic appreciation of planning
that may have no real application. In other words, wonderful detail but nowhere to go. The intuition to
potentially apply energy to detail; or An intuition for detail without the potential for application. It is all
about being prepared.
This is the gate of game player and the risk taker. The first line has to set the foundation for that. What
kind of risk do you want to take? You'd better have your detail. What often happens is that what looks
like a detriment isn't one at all. What that means is that you go through all the detail and then you don't
take the risk due to what you see. It was just interesting to go through all the detail. This is all about
preparation. Make sure that you have the detail before you take the risk. That is what the Preponderance
of the Great is all about. The foundation is: you better have the detail. Which means, as you move
through, the detail is always there. Risk taking is not a blind thing.
28.2 Shaking hands with the Devil
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The first line is trying to figure out the odds in introspection. The second line only wants to win and does
not care what the odds are. Shaking hands with the devil: you are only interested in winning. When you
look at initiation which is part of the individual process, this deep competitiveness that lies within the
individual nature is mirrored in this second line: the projection that "I have to win. If I do not win and if I
can't take a risk and gamble, life is not worthwhile." This can lead to depression. This line is about
Distasteful alliance.
Sun exalted. A means, however unsavory, that is justified by is end. Jupiter in detriment. The anxiety
engendered by sacrificing higher principles when there is no guarantee of success. In the white book:
When the game turns to a struggle, the intuitive acceptance of any alliance in order to win. The other side:
The risk in sacrificing principles when there is no guarantee of victory.
The whole nature of struggle is all about winning and losing. There are people that are either very good
winners or very bad losers, or the other way around. All of that can lead them to be very uncomfortable
with themselves. Remember, the deep fear which lies underneath, this fear of whether life is really of
value or not. These people will risk anything to get what they think is the projected victory. Realize the
illusion of that. They are projecting, "If I win this, life will be great." Then they discover that they have
sold their soul to the devil. By the way, for them it is okay. You have to see that. If you have the second
line, that is what it is about for you.
Anybody with this second line has to recognize that they do not have all the details. Therefore, the
winning and losing is important to them for their learning process. This is the child that has to learn, "You
have to be a good loser. Do not get angry just because you have lost." This is a process that they have to
go through because the detail is not there and they are just projecting it out.
28.3 Adventurism
We reach the end of the lower trigram process and find the capacity to adapt. Details are available: the
details are always necessary for the risk taker to know what to struggle about because not everything is
worth winning. This is what the second line does not know. The third line knows that not everything is
worth winning and not everything can be won, but it is Adventurism. This is the first attempt to really be
able to fulfill the whole struggle to go across the channel.
Unfounded risk taking. Saturn exalted. A basic conservatism that even in its adventurous acts is
necessarily prudent. In other words, there is a carefulness built into the third line. It is not so quick to just
project outwards. It is not just waiting and adding up all the odds and ends and the detail.
The Jupiterian side: Here a perverse manriestation of Jupiter's expansiveness, where risk.taking is
rationalized and failure ensurred. Without prudence, without relpedting the detail side (the projecting
capacity is there), there is always going to be failure. Failure in this context means that even if you win, it
won't make life seem more worthwhile. That is the failure here.
In the white book: An intuitive caution in risk-taking in times of struggle, or Intuitive rationalizing of risk
taking in times of struggle. One cannot just simply jump in because you ado not know what you will get,
and you do not (know whether iit is worthwhile for you. This is the lesson that the three has to learn from
the two.
The whole thing for the 28th agate is that the moment-they see that what'they are: struggling for is
worthvvlhiie,, this is their whole story. If it is really -worthwhile for them, it its a wonderful process no
matter how hard tie struggle is to get there (because it is justified in the end. They get a sweet victory, inot
-the sour victory of taking -a risk because What -you are trying to win in this game is not the prime. It is
the sense of accomplishment, that to be individual in this (life is really worthwJhile. "It is great to The
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alive. It its nice to be a human being. I enjoy my life." That is the real victory that is being sought out
here.
28.4 Holding on
With the fourth line we reach the upper trigram. The 28.4 is a very unusual line as it is part of the cross of
The Unexpected, and therefore, very unexpected things come out of this line. All fourth lines, due to their
nature of externalization and due to their one-trackedness, are very focused on one aspect.
Here it is called: Holding on. The ability through whatever means to keep one's grip. These people hold
on to their struggle and nothing can pull them from that. They are very one-track in their struggle. No
matter what the struggle is, no matter what they have to go through in their drive to externalize, they can
really hold it together.
Jupiter exalted. The application of knowledge to exploit opportunities, and usually for the greater good.
The Mercurial side: The application of intelligence to hold on, exclusively out of self-interest. That is
being individual in the first place. That is hardly a detriment in the normal sense of the word because that
is the individual process.
A depth of intuition at its best in struggle and often of value to others. If I want somebody who will help
me in a struggle with someone or about something, I will look for a 28.4. They are very good at that. This
is their nature. They can really be in there and get into that energy.
A depth of intuition that is stubbornly selfish in its capacity to hold on. They will not work with me. They
are in their own thing. They have to deal with their struggle. The people with the 28.4 can be infuriating if
you do not understand their nature because they get fixed and obsessed with their particular struggle. It
has to do with a certain thing for them. Everything about the 28, in the end, is about winning, like
everything about the 32 has to do with succeeding ("Do not fail.").
Here you have to win, but the winning is about winning for yourself in the sense that your life is
worthwhile. It is hard to kill these people. There is a deep focus here on holding on in the struggle until
their very last breath in order to figure out, "Yes, it was worthwhile." Then they get the joke and die. The
joke is that the game is fixed.
28.5 Treachery
The universalization line of the 28 is called Treachery. It has a wicked name but it is not wicked at all.
Their job is to universalize struggle. Their job is to get everybody to struggle for the value of life. At the
highest level, if you look at the highest principles, that is what these people do. They get other people to
struggle in order to find out for themselves that life is worthwhile. They provoke them in that sense.
The abuse of trust. The manipulation of the collective that, while pitting one faction against the other,
does not directly support or reject either. This is not about winning or losing. This is about making sure
that everybody is in the game. Please understand that. That is very important. This is a universalizing
element about dealing with the fear of death. They deal with this fear by getting everybody in the game to
struggle about whether life is worthwhile. Somebody with the 28.5 probes somebody else with, "Is your
life really worthwhile? Are you really doing what you want to do?" They get them all cranked up. They,
themselves, do not care. They just want everybody to play the game. They want everybody to be in the
same struggle. They are hoping at least if they get it, maybe I'll get it too.
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The other side is classic: Sun in detriment. The breaking of alliances with trusted forces to align with
more powerful forces, and the attendant destabilization of the whole. This is what they are best at. For
example, they go to Osho and come back and say, "Oh, my Master is full of light." Then somebody tells
them about another master and they will join that one. They stop being a sannyasin. They keep on
changing their masters. Every time that they leave, the people they leave are saying, "Treachery. These
are bad people who can't be trusted." This is not true. For this line, the struggle is endless. If you have
struggle in life, you will have it until you die.
These people recognize that it is an ongoing process. They surrender to it in that sense. They have one
teacher and they think that he is wonderful and when somebody tells them that there is a better teacher,
that is where they go because they are trying to get to the point where they find something that really
shows them that life is worthwhile, and they will continue to take that risk. They leave behind a lot of
struggle. The person that they leave behind who was depending on them says, "Why did they go?" They
have the struggle now. "Is life really worthwhile because they are gone?" This is what they do. They are
great disturbers. They just move this out into the world. Everybody struggles together.
28.6 Blaze of Glory
We come to the roof of the house and we come to Blaze of Glory. Again, the thing to recognize about this
sixth line is that is does not want to have anything to do with struggle. Nothing. It wants to get to the 44th
hexagram, to the first line which is called: The establishment of frameworks as a result of interaction. It
wants to establish a mastery over the collective. It wants to go to something else. It wants to go far
beyond the struggle. It can only go there if life is worthwhile.
Sacrifice rather than capitulation to the law of deterioration. No matter what it takes, I will not keep on
sliding down in the hopelessness of not finding that life is worthwhile. I will start taking any kind of risk.
I will make any kind of sacrifice. I will stop eating until I die, just to see if it is worthwhile.
Pluto exalted. Regeneration and renewal no matter what the price. Neptune in detriment. Self-destruction.
That is something that had a deep impact on a whole generation of people. So many people were born
with this configuration with either Pluto or Neptune. (1958-1960).
In the white book: The deep intuitive drive to win, no matter what the cost. The other side: The deep
intuitive fear of defeat and a potentially profound hopelessness in times of struggle. Remember that the
victory and the loss have to do
with whether life is worthwhile. These people work too much, live too fast, drive too fast. They take a
little too many drugs. They are always pushing it to see whether or not life can really be worthwhile.
Many of them are pushed to the point of destruction. Literally, these people make themselves sick over a
lifetime. They just slowly burn themselves out because they cannot find this sense that "It is okay, life is
worthwhile."
The 28 is only potential. V% have not looked at the possibility of awareness that comes out of that
potential. The potential to find out whether life is worthwhile takes the 57th and the 20th gate to bring the
awareness to the throat and manifest it in the now so that the 28.6 can see, "Being here in the now, life IS.
It just is. I do not have to be afraid of it because it is there." If the 28.6 is hanging there by itself, it can be
very uncomfortable because one does not want to struggle. One simply wants to know that life is
worthwhile. These are people who, instead of struggling, just hurt themselves.
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HEXAGRAM 29 THE ABYSMAL
The 29th hexagram is something very strange, because it says either yes or no to life. It is making the
commitment to be alive as a human. It is built into it at its deepest level to say yes. My joke with this is:
"Can I borrow your life?" "Yes." "Can I waste your time?" "Yes." "Can I take all your money?" "Yes."
"Can I fuck you up?" "Yes."
It is built into our sacral center to be alive. The 29th gate is constantly reaffirming our commitment to life.
It is the deep within the deep. It is our commitment to life but at the same time, it is the thing that is going
to turn off the switch when we die. It is the thing that is going to say, "Enough. I have had enough now. I
will say no now." I am always telling people who have the 29th gate don't say "Yes," say "Wait". Make
people wait. The reality is that the yes is built in, but the no can always be there.
Above the lines: The deep within the deep. Persistence despite difficulties has its inevitable rewards. This
is a very funny language: Persistence despite difficulties... If you say yes to life, you are saying yes to
difficulties. This is one of the jokes about being human.. ..has its inevitable rewards. When? 'Inevitable'
simply means that at some point they come, but when they come? You can go through difficulty after
difficulty after difficulty and you are constantly saying yes to life and all the difficulties are there.
What are hidden in this 29 can be the deepest scars in humans. There is no line in here that talks about
self-destruction or killing oneself but everything within the 29 has the potential for suicide. It has the
potential to say no to the life process. It has the potential to say no to healing, no to being cured, no to
being helped, no to being wanted. All of those things are always possible underneath, and it depends on
whether or not they have in the earliest part of their life accepted for themselves the difficuly of what life
is.
29.1 The Draftee
The first lime says: The Draftee. The foundation of this hexagram is:: The ability to adapt to. struggle
when necessary but not as a permanent state, hother words, make your commitment but don't make
thatcommitmemt for life. Make your cornmitmemi o the experience, just to the experience. It is; the!
experience that gives us the ultimate growth andlvalue in the. process. That is why' when people are really
doown, if they find something that they really like th do, that-they can commit themselves to, suddenly
they begin to blossom, gut without that, without being drafted into the experience they simply continue to
go through their process saying, "Can I really continue to say yes to this commitment to life?"
Mars exalted. The innate nature to apply energy in times of war and peace. Bless young Mars. Mars says,
"Yes, I don't care how difficult it is. I have the energy and the power and I will do it." That is Mars at its
best. "I am here to be alive. I am here to grow up," says the child Mars. "Give me a chance to grow up."
The whole thing about the 29 is to understand that the experiential way, like any way, takes time.
Everything takes time. To be well in this life, to be at peace in this life, to come to grips with what it is to
be you in this life, it all takes time. That is what I tell people when they come to Design. You have to
work with this awareness and knowledge for seven years before it really is going to be a part of you. Just
so it can get down to the cells. Just so you can continue that process.
Neptune in detriment. The great mask of Neptune is dropping in here. A deep impressionability whose
mark from times of struggle may make a return to normal conditions extremely difficult. When you have
a child that has the 29.1, it will either go one way or the other. They are either going to have this
wonderful depth of energy to say, "Yes, it is difficult but life is life. Yes, the experience is hard but I'll go
through it," or the other side in which the experience comes and they are shattered in it. In that moment of
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shattering in the experience, it becomes more and more difficult for them to commit themselves again to a
new experience. The child falls into a pool, unable to swim, and it is a 29.1. The deep within the deep. If
the child pulls itself up and it can, that child is always going to be able to fall into a pool of water. But for
the child that has to be grabbed by somebody else and dragged out of that pool gasping, it is going to take
a lifetime for that being to go back into the water.
This is the nature of commitment. Commitment is not just about saying yes. It is about recognizing that
whatever you say yes to is going to present all those difficulties and the moment you get stuck on the
difficulties is the moment that you loose this magical Martian love and lust for life. That is the beauty that
can lie here, but this is also the pain that can be on the other side.
In the white book: The power to persevere when necessary but not generally; and the detriment:
Hesitation in making commitments based on past experience. "No, I don't want to try that. I can't do that.
"Come on, you can." "No."
29.2 Assessment
The first line has the capacity for introspection and recognizes that it can say yes and make a
commitment. '. have seen that this commitment can lead to a continuing process of growth; after all, this
is the channel of Discovery, a channel of succeeding where other people fail, or failing where other
people succeed. This is one of those things to keep in mind about the nature of that commitment.
When you come to the second line and you are coming to the projection, these people are projecting out
that they are always ready to say yes. "Come and ask me. I am ready to say yes." Persistence tempered by
caution. The caution is that we are dealing with the lack of introspection because it is projection; so,
although the capacity is there to project out that they are ready to be persistent and that they have the
power to be persistent, they do not really know whether that power is there. The caution is not a mental
caution. It is not an awareness caution that says, "Aha, I have to be careful about where I put my energy."
This is just power.
The Sun exalted. The power of sustainment as a guiding light. In the white book: Saying yes and the
power to persevere. This power is really there. These people project out that they are ready to persevere
but they don't know whether they can or not. It may not work for them. They may be found out. They
may not have the necessary resources to persist in that particular experience, whatever it may be.
Venus in detriment. A tendency to over-cautiousness when persistence is perceived as adding to rather
than ending disharmony. Here comes Venus again, stepping in with this additional interactive social
quality and making the process more difficult by being there. Somebody comes up to the 29.2 and says,
"Do you want to try roller-blading?" and they say, "Yes." They are always ready to say yes. They will
always project out their yes and then somebody who is close to them says, "Yeah, but that costs a lot of
money and people get broken legs and it does not really work and I do not really want you to do that
around here."
If that is somebody who is important for them that they want to have as their friend, or somebody with
whom they want to have a harmonious relationship, they are likely to be much more cautious and
restrained in that. In other words, they get found out because they discover in the moment that somebody
makes a comment about it and they do not really know if they have the resources. They can suddenly
become cautious about that.
Always built into all of the lines of the 29 is this holding back from making the commitment, but usually
it is the product of having had a difficult experience in life that does it, rather than commonsense or rather
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than awareness that says, "Yes, I have to be careful about how I use my energy and what I commit it to."
The caution in people who say yes comes from people who got burnt.
Water does not like fire. These people can always get burnt from the experience. They can always suffer
from the experience and say, "I can't do that anymore. I can't take those kinds of chances anymore. I can't
commit myself to those kinds of things anymore." They become more cautious, but not because they are
aware. The difficulty of the experience is something that becomes a burden for them because they don't
know whether they have the resources for it.
29.3 Evaluation
When you come to Evaluation, the third line: In this context, properly assessed inaction. By the way,
properly assessed inaction does not mean that that is how they start their life. They have to learn that from
experience. They are going to be less likely to jump in and say yes but nonetheless, they will. They have
to learn from experience so that genetic attribute of them can be triggered properly.
Despite the urge and cost of inaction, the knowledge that it is sometimes better to fight another day. You
have to learn that sometimes it is better to fight another day, but not necessarily. These people will make
their mistakes. They have to go through that process.
The power to wait. You see Mars there. You have to wait until Mars is about 40 years old. Mars has to
grow up in order to wait. I am an Arian. I know that.
On the other side of this in the black book is Jupiter in detriment. A preference for withdrawal in principle
with little regard for effect. When the mistakes have really been heavy, there is this "Wait a minute now.
Shall I do this?" For so long I taught you to really just see this mechanism of saying yes, because that is
how it operates at the mundane level. At the mundane level, people will always go through this process
because the fact is that you have to go through that process if you have this gate. But you will always
meet the difficulties of life and in meeting them, there are only two ways to go.
This is the deep within the deep. What is at the other end? The other end is the love of the body, the 46th
gate. The magic of this_channel, the 46/29, is to discover the magic of what it is to be in form, what it is
to be in a body in this life and what it means for this body to move through this life. This channel can be
deeply profound because of that and because this is the love of being alive in the body and that is what all
this commitment is about: to be committed to the life process. But you don't know because on the other
end, the 46, Pushing Upward, is in the kingdom of heaven. In the old I'Ching, you have to come from The
deep within the deep and you have to go through all this stuff until you finally get up to the kingdom of
heaven and you discover, "Wow. This machine is really great."
Not everybody gets to that place and it is not because of this line or anything else. It is about the nature of
what it is to be human, and to be unaware. If you are human and unaware, you do not like yourself and
you dislike the wrong person because it is not you that you do not like but your conditioning and what
you have become. You do not get a chance to see the magnificence of that. Everybody who stands in front
of a mirror has a complaint about the nature of their form. We do not accept the magnificence of what that
is. We complain about it. We would like to get out of it. I have so many people who come up to me and
say, "I astral-project. I live here in my body in this life."
This is the magic of the 29th gate. Until you can accept the beauty of what it is to be in form, there is no
experience in life that is worth having because otherwise it is just pain and difficulty and a struggle. It is
the work of life, this tough, heavy world. We are lucky people. We are privileged to live in a society
where there is wealth and relative freedom. The world is filled with horrors. Yet at the same time, we still
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have this "Well, I need to fix this. I have to make this or that better. I don't like what I see." This is loving
what it is to be in these bodies. They are beautiful. For me, Buddha was crazy. All he wanted to do was to
get rid of the body and get out of it. This is where we belong. This is what the 29 has to come to
recognize: "Aha, it is supposed to be like this." This is the glory of what it is to be human.
Jupiter in detriment in the white book: The inability to make commitments. The power of caution. That
power of caution means that these are people that are not ready to commit themselves to experience and
because of that, they can become very weak. Their bodies can become weak. On the mundane level, their
bodies do not get the necessary exercise, the necessary process of getting involved in the experience, to
do the things to keep it going.
It all comes down to this whole business about whether we can accept that these are our vehicles and that
they are perfect. Everybody gets exactly the model that belongs to them. So much of that deep philosophy
is what is rooted here in the 29th hexagram. That is why it is both the commitment to life and the
commitment to death. "I don't like this model. I will not fix it. I'll just let it die. I will let it fall apart." That
is the other side of the 29: "I don't love this body." This gate is not aware. It is just energy.
Everybody thinks that the discovery of succeeding where others fail is about what they do but it is about
how you live in the experience of yourself. It is about the acceptance of form and this is the only mystical
possibility for abstract people. The only mystical potential for anyone who is abstract is here in this
channel. It is the acceptance that one is in the right place at the right time, and that begins with your body.
29.4 Directness
When you come to the fourth line, you come to the upper trigram and you have the recognition now that
heaven is there. The first to the third line do not know that. All they know is the deep within the deep, the
pressure of all that water and the weight of what it is to live in the world, alas, carrying the world around.
In the first three lines, you meet the most serious people in the world. 29.1, 2 and 3 can be so damn
serious that it is frightening. There is no laughter in all of that. There is the deep recognition that this body
has to deal with all kinds of difficulties in moving through the world, and it ain't necessarily a nice trip.
When you get to the fourth line, it is like, "Oh, there is a sky above." The ability to look across the
channel is quite different.
It says, Directness. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. "That is where I am going:
straight up. I am getting out of this water. I am getting out of this way. I am going ta-triumph in this
process."
Saturn exalted. The wisdom to use the simplest and most direct approach to solve difficulties. "Ah, now
we have the theme of difficulties which is at the top of the lines. Now, for the first time, we have a
confrontation with the difficulties. Here is the ability to be fixed in your persistence and go right through
the difficulties. You go through the difficulties with Saturn which means that you have to be disciplined.
There has to be a great deal of restraint within you to be able to go through those difficulties, but it is
there as a potential.
In the white book: The power to commit oneself to the simplest and most direct process. This is a
wonderful energy, very fixed. "I have to persist. I said yes and I will go through it. I will get to the place
that is on the other side."
On the other side of the directness, the Mercurial side: Simplicity and directness all too often seen as
inharmonic and aesthetically crude. In the white book: The power of directness often offends others. "Get
out of my way. I am going this way. This is my experience and I am fixed on it. I am not fixed on your
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experience. I don't want to share it with you. Don't take me away from my process now. I will go through
my experience." Collective people who do not share are always considered rude. This is just one of the
jokes of being a collective person because you are expected to share.
29.5 Overreach
The first line tells you the essence, that struggle is there for us, step by step, along the way and we are
here to deal with each struggle and go through the difficulties of it in order to achieve our success in this
life. When you get to the fifth line, how it is projected upon by the world, the world sees this 29th gate as
simply being about overreach or overambition. This is how the world sees the energy to say yes all the
time.
The Overreach is: The tendency to bite of more than one can chew. It is projected onto these beings that
they have the capacity not only to be persistent, but in their activity, in what they do experientially, to
universalize the process. In other words, they can be very valuable contributors and because they have
that capacity inside of them to universalize the value of an experience, the projection on them that they
have this capacity brings them into making all kinds of commitments that are not necessarily of value for
them. Biting off more than one can chew. Here we have a Sun/Earth axis in a line.
Sun exalted. Where the drive is in the design and not ambition-driven. So, there is this genuine power of
saying yes: The uncontrollable drive to say yes. It is a deep power inside to say yes, to commit oneself.
The Earth in detriment. Failed ambition. In terms of the white book: Saying yes, overextending one's
resources and failing to persevere. That can be devastating. Failing to persevere at its highest level is
failing to persevere in life, in this ordeal of coming to accept the perfection of what one is, the beauty of
one's form, the process that one is going through. It is not just about saying yes to too many things and
having the obvious mundane failures come. So many people with the 29.5 say yes to this and that and, at
some point, they cannot provide the resources for all of that. They can't. They begin to break promises.
They begin to disappoint people because what they said they would commit their energy to, they can't
commit their energy to anymore.
When you turn that over and you get to the failed ambition on the other side, this can have the same kind
of devastating impact as the experience of falling into the water and having to be saved and having to go
through the trauma of that experience. This fifth line, in that sense, raises to another level what it means to
make a commitment to this life in this form.
Every time that I deal with abstract people, I always try to remind them that this is what their life is about.
They are our teachers about the path of experience in life and they are designed for experience in life.
They do not have to chase after everything simply because it is projected on them. The 3.5 spoke of
Victimization. The people with the 29.5 can be victimized for their capacity to provide resources,
victimized by a projecting public that says, "This is the one."
The young worker that goes into an office and they carry the 29.5, everybody in that office is burdening
them with something. "You do the paper work over here. By the way, I have a job for you over here." The
manager behind is saying, "This one has the energy to do anything." Everybody is coming and giving
them something to work on and the 29.5 says yes until they collapse because it is projected on them and
they can become a victim of their own power.
Again, part of that is: if you do not love your form, you are ready to say yes to anything in order to find it,
to see what it is. So much about what it is to fail in life is that the deepest failure is to not love what it is to
be you. There is nothing else. In my work, this is the great disease that I see in the world: deep self-
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hatred. I am a mechanic and, as such, I provide information. I know damn well that even though I am
providing information that is amoralistic, that really tells you the truth about what it is to be in these
forms, that you are still there thinking, "Yeah, yeah. Maybe I can change this. Maybe I can work on this.
Maybe I can fix this. Maybe I can be better at this."
You have to accept what it is that you are, and not what you think that you can become. There is no
becoming. There is what you are. The real failed ambition here is not accepting your form. The moment
you accept what you are, you know your own limitations. You know what is there to say yes to and what
is there not to say yes to. Then this power of universalization becomes something very beautiful.
By the way, biting off more than you can chew, you can talk to Adam and Eve about that. That is the line
of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This is what the Garden is all about. If you want to look for the
deepest spirituality about the descent of man into this quality of life, you look at this fifth line which is
called Overreach. "Yes, give me that apple. Yes, let me take a bite from the tree of knowledge." But it is
not enough because if you only have a bite, you don't know and if you don't know truly what it is to be
you, you are going to be tormented. Your life will fail inside, the spirit inside.
I know so many 29.5 people who have suffered so deeply in their lives by being abused by others because
they have this enormous quality to commit themselves to them. They are deeply beneficial human beings
to guide us into experience. I have a deep connection to fifth lines, through resonance; I really understand
the pressure that they are under. As long as they do not accept the nature of what it is to be them, they
cannot universalize the wonder of what it is to be in form.
As an individual, I can only give you that as an example of the vibration that I put out to you about what
it is for me to be inside my body. But I am not a universalizer of that mystical principle because the
universalizer of that is the 29.5. They can universalize the magnificence of what it is to be in this form,
instead of being the victims from other people taking this energy away from them.
29.6 Confusion
The sixth line is all about transition. The transition here is that the whole concept of commitment becomes
something totally different. If you are looking at the circuit and if you are trying to see what the whole
circuitry is (the nature of the circuitry finishes after this channel), you get to the 13/33, to the channel of
The Witness, and you get to the essence to what the abstract process is about. It is about the nature of
reflecting on the experience that you have been through so that that experience, after you have reflected
about it, can then be added to the human library of what experience is.
When you get to the sixth line, because of the nature of sixth lines, it is saying, "Will this experience
actually be valuable in the library? Will anybody know about it? Do I really want to know about this? Is it
really worthwhile?" All of these standard sixth line perspectives.
The line is called Confusion. The state that exists when momentum outstrips awareness. Because the
whole circuit is available, there is the sense of "I am an energy" for the 29th gate. "I don't know what is
going on. I have all this energy to say yes. I have all this energy to go through this process but I really
don't know what is going on. I am confused about what all this is for." These are the people that will
always say to you "Why do we have to live this kind of life? Why is being a human like this? Why do we
have to go through these things? Why must we have this kind of experience in order to live out the human
process?" There is this great big question that is there. Why?
Mars exalted. Driving blind and given Mars' energy and determination, often blind luck. Jupiter in
detriment. A tendency in confusion to withdraw rather than accept the condition and continue to
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persevere. These are people that can really step out. They can step out to the point that they can literally
give up life. These are the kind of people that start dying just before they really die. It does not matter
whether they die by an accident or they get sick, but you know before the time of death that they are
already dying and you can feel the essence of that. These are people that can withdraw in the deepest
sense of the word. After all, sixth lines are about the mutative process because it is a transition process.
Mutation can be positive and negative. You can get to the most negative level of the sixth line, like Blaze
of glory in the 28.6, and you go burning yourself out into a flaming end. Please understand: it has
everything to do with the nature of somebody's individual design and not just the fact that this line may
appear in their chart. If you have somebody who, in their design, has other compensations for that
possibility, there are ways in which they can go through that and they will be all right. But it is so
important to understand that that is there in this level of confusion.
The power to persevere that makes no sense. It does not seem to make any sense unless I can see what its
value is going to be, though not to me. This is the ultimate impersonal line. My experience has to be of
value not for me; it has to be of value for everyone else. These are the kind of people that do not want to
do anything unless they can tell you about it afterwards. These are people that go on a vacation and they
take 8,000 photographs and you have to go through the whole thing. Now they have videos. They tell
you, "This was my experience. Isn't it great? This is for you. I want to share this with you." Unless it
really appears to be of value, then comes the hesitancy of all sixth lines.
The power in confusion to caution rather than saying yes. Please remember that that yes can go to many
different levels, ultimately to the point of saying (or not saying) yes to life. It is always there. One of the
things that I know but do not teach is the nature of how the 29th gate controls death in our lives. It is so
important to recognize that if you have people in your life you are working with, or children in your life
who carry this 29th gate energy, that one of the most important things for them to understand it that life is
a bitch. It is okay. What to do? It will be difficult.
The moment that they really know that, they do not have any false expectations about the heaven at the
other end, as long as they understand. These are human beings; these are children that have to be clearly
told: "Life can be hard. You will find that out. But it is okay. You stay with it. You will grow. You will
mature. You will get to the other end. By the way, you are perfectly equipped for it."
People who are abstract in their design are equipped for the abstract plane. The thing for them to
recognize is that everything that is abstract brings crisis, change and instability and all kinds of problems.
Belief systems that break down. All kinds of things are part of our human experience. These people need
to understand that life is difficult but that does not mean that life is bad. It does not mean that being who
you are is not capable of dealing with the difficulties that life offers. The joke of course is: when you go
from the 29.6, you go to the 59.1 and it says, "You are confused? You don't know whether your body is
worth anything? Go make love to somebody, you fool, and find out how incredible it is to have a body."
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HEXAGRAM 30 THE CLINGING FIRE
Everything about the abstract process is about its experiential nature. Because the abstract process will
never experience awareness, by the time that the rest of the circuitry that is going out of the emotional
system has gained the capacity for spiritual awareness, by the time the change comes, this is a process that
will be eliminated.
The abstract process is a purely human process. It is our evolutionary process, our experiential process,
and the 30th hexagram in that case represents something unusual. It represents the potential to feel and to
long for an experience. Without this potential, we would not have our history. We would not have had all
the crisis and change that this whole stream of energy has brought. So the 30th hexagram is the beginning
of Aquarius. The 30th hexagram is something special to us. This is a direction that we are moving
towards.
When the spring equinox is in Aquarius, it will be in the sixth line of the 30th hexagram and it will be the
beginning of this process of the Aquarian age. So the 30th hexagram has a lot of value to us. The Clinging
Fire is the gate of feeling. Its potential is the awareness to recognize a feeling, or not. It is the energy to
generate a feeling, or not. Don't be misled by this awareness terminology. It is an energy to feel or not,
and its potential is hunger/thirst recognition. Everything about the experiential stream is about hunger in
the beginning (the 41st hexagram, the initiator codon) and being full at the end (the 35th hexagram,
Progress). The 30th hexagram is the capacity to recognize the feeling to eat or drink.
We talked about the need for humanity to be able to satisfy the demand of hunger and you see that the
primary human experience is the recognition of hunger and the energy to go and pursue that hunger until
one has found food and one can eat. Just as food is a fundamental drive for that stream, sexuality is a
fundamental drive of this stream. They are all locked up together in this process.
The best description I know of the Aquarian Age and the nature of this gate is above the lines: Freedom
recognized as an illusion and limitation accepted as fate. This is the nature of what we are moving
towards: the illusion of freedom. Freedom does not exist. This is the recognition that we all fit into a
pattern and in that, we all have our place, and in that, limitation is a grace. It is not a punishment. This is
the nature of what we are moving toward. The emotional quality of this gate is driving us towards this. It
is an extraordinary thing to recognize that the deepest force in the emotional motor in this stream, what it
is really looking for, is to get out of the experiential business and to be satisfied with the pattern that gives
value to the nature of what it is to be.
30.1 Composure
It begins with the foundation in the first line which is Composure. Hardly what you would imagine. The
nature of feeling is to go into the process, delve into the process; this is the nature of introspection in the
first line.
Balance in the face of disorder. Sun exalted. The maximization of limitation in all cases. Jupiter in
detriment. The ability to maintain composure but at the expense of progress. This gate burns with
feelings. This is a gate of yearning and longing. In that feeling comes an intensity. This is where desire is.
It is driven by desire. The key to that is the composure. Most people think of this gate as being the
burning gate. One of the keys is the recognition of composure: the rising of the intensity of the feeling and
waiting for the opportunity to be able to actualize.
Stability through feelings, no matter what the situation. When you move from the 30th to the 36th gate,
you are going to the gate of inexperience that demands the experience. But the 30th gate is living out the
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feeling in the wave, up and down in that wave of feelings. These are people that carry what we call
feelings.
Balanced through feelings but unable to let go of them. This is one of the keys to understanding the nature
of the 30th hexagram: this is obsession. It is all about obsession. Even if one can be composed, the
obsession is there and the longer the intensity develops in the 30th gate without the capacity to fulfill that,
the deeper the obsession becomes. This is a deep hunger that lies inside of the human being. That hunger
longs to be fulfilled. The nature of this gate is to have composure in spite of obsession. The experience
can be in the feeling itself without any consummation.
30.2 Pragmatism
When we get to this second line of projection and consider the mirror at the other side in the 18.2 where
you have Terminal Disease, here the feelings are projected outwards in the almost desperate need not to
simply feel it, but do it. This is one of the keys in this line.
The balance between extremes. Sun exalted. The productive application of energy without wastage. These
people are not going to release their feelings when there is nothing they can do with them. They release
them the moment they can do something. Everything they do suddenly gets imbued with this power of
feeling. No wastage means they do not get lost in all kinds of feelings.
Mars in detriment. Over-aggressiveness that chafes against limitations. The moment that they cannot get
their feelings out, they become aggressive because it is very frustrating for them that they can't get it out.
The Book of Letters says: Not wasting energy on feelings. They don't waste energy on feelings. They are
pragmatic. They want to waste the energy on the experience, not on the feeling. The feeling for them is,
"Yes, Yes, but what is the experience?" Their feelings are always waiting for the opportunity of
experience.
Feelings which demand energy. They are demanding the opportunity to release the feelings and if they
can't, they build up a lot of tension. This line in relationships can be very explosive, particularly if they
are with somebody who suddenly turns on their emotional system: the 30.2 in an undefined emotional
system and someone comes along and pumps up their emotional system; this can be a powerful thing.
There is a great deal of emotional energy that is locked up in here waiting for the opportunity to burst out,
with predictable results in terms of what happens with other people. It often is simply a feeling-overload.
I knew someone like that who dropped by my house every time I made some music. He immediately
made me so emotional that I had to stop. The moment that he had an outlet for this emotional feeling, he
was just pouring them out. It would not matter if it was a dead dog, he could have his opportunity to
release his energy crying, laughing, and if you are open to that, you take that in. This is uncomfortable
because it carries this feeling intensity. These people are great for sannyasin therapies.
30.3 Resignation
When you come to the third line, you come to a deeply spiritual line. It is an extraordinary line. I am
always amazed that it is there in this gate. The nature of this line and what this line will represent later in
our process, in our development, will become more significant.
The line is called Resignation. It says: The acceptance of what is. Pluto exalted. The awareness and
manifestation of the law of regeneration. The laws of Karma, reincarnation and resurrection. Jupiter in
detriment. The tendency by its very knowledge to encourage or avoid despair.
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Think about the nature of this line. This is an adaptation line. It is the end of the trigram. It can be
inherently irresponsible. We know it is about bonds made and broken. We know that the wave here is
allegiance and rejection. What is in that wave and what happens to these people over time is that, out of a
recognition (after all, this is the channel of Recognition) comes an acceptance of the nature of the wave,
the acceptance of what it is to be emotional. It does not happen right away. It takes them time; after all
there is no awareness here until they do recognize that what is, is. "I am up, I am up. I am down, I am
down. I feel that the world is beautiful. I feel that the world is shit." This is just what is, and out of that
recognition comes the acceptance of what it is to be emotional.
These people grasp the nature of the emotions and can be in despair about that because out of that
recognition does not come awareness. Out of this recognition can come emotional clarity. The highest
level that this stream can attain is emotional clarity, to recognize that what is, is. It is an irresponsibility to
the process of the feeling. If the feeling cannot result in change or progress, it is not about becoming
obsessed with the feeling. It is about surrendering to 'this is what is'. At the high end of the wave, it will
be acceptable and at the low end of the wave, it is full of pain but nonetheless, this is the nature of the!
motor.
Ih the, Book of Letters: The feeling to accept what is. Not-the awareness; the feeling to accept what is.
This comes only from experience. This is one of the-deepest things that we recognize about the nature of
the emotional environment, all know this. People in our lives and people that we love,, we!watch them as
they-grow older and as emotional people grow older,, generally they mellow.. They mellow with
experience. They have made a fool out of themselves so. many times, they have been hurt so many times,
they watched others get hurt so many times that slowly they begin to recognize the nature of what the
wave is. The greatest gift that can come to anyone with a defined emotional system is the, recognition that
the wave is there and there is nothing one can do about it,, other than just let it be what it is This is the
beauty that lies in this line.
The positive or negative feelings that come with acceptance. You don't have to like it. This business about
having to like, your life: you don't have to like it. You have to accept it.. It is not about liking. You can
love people that you don't Ike. We all know that. You can like people you don't love. You don't have to
like your life; you can love it and not like it but you will never lb we it unless you can, accept it..
Everybody thinks that they are here to improve their lives. They are not. Your life does not need any
improving. It is exactly what it is supposed to be, and nothing else. For the emotional being to accept the
nature of the wave is to survive life; otherwise they can't. Otherwise they are always in pain, always full
of hope and projecting that onto others.
This is a very beautiful hexagram. People who have this are very interested in reincarnation. They have
this as a theme. This line is very mystical. Once you accept it, then you see the whole pattern, you see the
wheel, you see the spiral.
30.4 Burnout
The fourth line: the beginning of the upper trigram and the process of externalization. These people make
other people sick. They make others emotionally unstable. They are less likely to show evidence of this
themselves, but they can have deep impact on the people around them. The line is called Burnout. An
unrealistic pace that begs misfortune. These are experience junkies. These are people who must have
experience. They can only develop their feelings through experience and they must share their feelings
with someone else.
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Pluto exalted. A compulsive and hyperactive nature that carries all the earmarks of burnout but doesn't
necessarily arrive at it. A positive outcome is often assisted through analysis. This is a classic situation.
You have a parent that has the 30.4 and they have a child with an undefined emotional system. The child
becomes hyperactive and it gets sent into analysis. The 30.4 really impacts on other human beings much
more that on themselves.
Jupiter in detriment. Uncontrollable expansion with the inevitable bursting of the bubble. In this
hexagram, you have three different situations in which Jupiter is in the detriment. This emotional field is
enormously expansive.
Highly energized feelings that may lead to emotional collapse. I have the 41.3, so my resonance is not to
the fourth line. A friend of mine has the fourth line. Whenever that person visits me, it is so
uncomfortable for me because I notice that, after they have been there for ten or fifteen minutes, I get up
and go to work. I start doing something-an experience. I suddenly have the feeling that I have to do this.
These people can be really obsessive about living out their feeling in that sense, but it is what they do to
others that is so powerful. Remember that by the time you get to the fourth line, you get to a line that by
its very nature is there to externalize a single track. And it is a collective circuit and it is about sharing,
and the very next step is to penetrate somebody. When you see this, particularly in couples or parent-child
relationships, this is something to talk about with them because this can always lead to a great deal of
problems and misunderstanding about the nature of it. The person with the undefined system who takes
that in becomes deeply vulnerable to that because they become twice as explosive.
30.5 Irony
When you get to fifth line, you get to the universalization. The line is called Irony. It says: Recognition
and dedication to transitory goals. Jupiter exalted. The strength derived from knowledge and experience
that two steps forward and one step back is still one step forward.
Understand what happens to these people. This is all about sex, food and experience. They have an
interesting love affair and they leave their lover because they find something more interesting. They are a
30th gate. They have a yearning and a desire and they see a new lover and they go ahead and have a new
love affair. It turns out to be terrific.
Six months later, they go shopping and go into a cafe and there is their old lover. There is a feeling inside
of them that says, "Maybe we should try it again and see if that was really what I thought it was when I
left." What happens to them is that the whole experiential process is about gaining experience and not
repeating it because it is not worthwhile, but there are many situations in which you cannot know that
until you have had the experience a few times. They will go through that process where they will take
their step ahead and will have their new experience but there is always a holding on to the feeling from
before. That can pull them back to that feeling. They can often feel very funny in a situation where
suddenly they thought that they were through with something and then they have to come all the way
back and deal with it again. The whole thing about that line is that everything is the same, except how you
handle it.
Pluto in detriment. The anger engendered by the irony, frustration with its limitations and a desire to
eliminate the entire process. "I will get rid of both of them because something is wrong. Why should I go
back? Shouldn't I be satisfied with where I am?" They have to learn that this is the only way in which
they will come to grips with the experiential pathway. They are double-checkers with their feelings. They
go back and check it out one more time and then they walk away and say, "Yes, I was right. I got that on
my way, but now I'll get rid of that feeling and now I can go on to the next experience."
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In the Book of Letters: Each new feeling brings back an old feeling before progress can take place. That
new feeling brings back an old feeling which lingers in there and you think, "I don't know if I am doing
the right thing."
Frustration and anger with the old feelings brought into the emotional awareness with each new
experience. "Why is it still there with me? Does that mean that I am not in the right experience for me
now?" This can be a real torment. These people get torn in their feelings. They have the new experience
that they are participating in and the old feeling that is still lingering there, and the two of them fight with
each other in the emotional system. Depending on their wave, that struggle can either be full of hope or
full of pain. Eventually, they get rid of that old feeling because the new one is okay. In the low end of the
wave: "Oh, my god. This new feeling must have been a trick. I'd better check out the old feeling again."
These are, by the way, the most seductive of these people because they simply do have the experience.
30.6 Enforcement
We come to the roof of the house, the line of transition. Remember the mirrors in Design because they are
very funny. The 18.6 is Buddhahood. The 30.6 is not Work on what has been spoilt but it is 'the spoilt
one.' In the 30.6 we find the emotionally spoilt one. They only want the best experiences. They only want
to have the thrill of the emotional life. This is what is so important to them.
It is called Enforcement. The discipline to maintain right action. Mars exalted. The assertiveness to purge
the inferior while accepting to lead the weak. The strength to eliminate negative feelings. They don't want
to have negative feelings. They are looking for the feel-good in life. They hope that somebody will bring
it to them. Because of that, these are some of the cleverest people in knowing exactly who to yearn for.
They are very good at this. They are good at looking exactly for that energy that is going to give them that
kind of life. The same is true for the 18.6, finding someone who will spoil them. This is one of their gifts.
The 30.6 is somebody who needs to be spoilt emotionally.
Moon in detriment. An inherent peacefulness that all too often will abide the presence of inferior forces.
Now, think about this: both of these lines in the Rave I'Ching are talking about dealing with inferior
forces and remember that every hexagram, when you get to the roof, is looking to the next hexagram, in
this case the 55.1, which is all about finding the spirit through cooperation with superior forces.
The whole thing about the experiential path is that it seems like it can be full of all kinds of inferior
forces. That is what you learn along the experiential path. What works? What does mot work?'Who can
do' it and who can't? Where the (progress is and where' it is not. The deepest thing the 30.6 is looking for
is the real superior force, lit is interested im (people and this is very unusual. This is a collective circuit
and iit is not personal: it -tends to be the kind of relationship that is simply for the experience itself and
yet the sixth line says, "I know all that. I want more. I want the superior experience. 1 wont a superior
person in my life because II know that I have 'to shore it with somreone."
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HEXAGRAM 31 INFLUENCE
The channel 31/7, the channel of theAlpha, for good or bad, a design of leadership. There are no more
connotations in this. This is the mechanic to be influential. This is the mechanic to lead. It says above the
lines: The law of friction, whether active or passive, that engenders transference and thus influence. It is
transference that influence is all about. That is, what has to be transferred needs to be transferred to those
who have the power to act on it. Remember, we have a primary gate of identity and we have a logical
process that suffers a deep restriction of energy.
The 31 represents what we call in our process a democratic leader, what we call democracy. It is
somebody that has to be elected or selected. When somebody is a political leader, no matter how they got
to that position, they are going to have to transfer their leadership quality to others. They have to transfer
a pattern to others; otherwise, nothing gets led. It is as simple as that. In other words, the leader is always
going to be dependent on their quality of transference. If the quality of transference is of value, then their
leadership can be of value. If what they transfer is not of value, then the opposite occurs.
31.1 Manifestation
Here the first line is called Manifestation. We are dealing with the throat, which is the great center of
manifestation. This is the only line that is called Manifestation. This is a key. This is fundamental.
Remember the relationship that exists between the logical process and all other forms of life. Whether
you are looking at plants, at animals, at insects or at a single cell, you are dealing with forms that have
something in common. What they have in common is logic. It is very important for us. Without secure
patterns upon which we can project into the future, it puts an enormous strain on our ability to survive.
That is why logic is so important to us: to understand how things actually operate, in fact, and out of that,
to recognize how we can move into the future. There is no guarantee about the future but it gives us a
secure footing. That is why we look for logical leadership and are disturbed by illogical leadership.
Influence cannot exist in a vacuum. This is the foundation of all leadership. Every leader knows that they
are only as strong as those who follow. This is the core of all leadership. There is no leader out of the 31/7
that can be of any value unless they have those who are willingly serving and following. This is not the
45; this is not the tribal leader. This is a collective leader who is dependent on the energy of the collective
to maintain it. If we do not like our politicians, we vote them out, in that sense. Without the collective
support, they cannot maintain their leadership.
Here you have an example of a line that has the Sun and the Earth as both the exalted and the detriment.
Whenever you see the Sun and the Earth in the same line, you know that this is a very important polarity.
Always.
Here, the Sun exalted. The Sun does not and cannot hold back its light and thus its influence on every life.
What we are talking about is quality, the quality of a pattern which can bring light or darkness.
The other side is the Earth in detriment. This was Hitler's line; he had his Earth there. What he inherited
from his mother was his design Earth. The absorption of light that in darkness can only promise
manifestation.
These are the two sides: The natural expression of leadership, natural in the sense of bringing a direct
benefit in its transference to society. It is giving them something secure to lead them into the future. The
other side: The unnatural expression of leadership. By the way, that does not mean bad. I am not a
moralist. If I look at this activation, I can see that, out of that, its direct effect may have been darkness
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(Hitler, for example) but the indirect transference led to a very enlightened generation that followed. The
nature of the war and its technologies led to all kinds of advances. We would not have people surviving in
the world through the medicine that we have if we had not experimented on about a hundred million
people injured in the field during the war. All kinds of medical techniques, all kinds of devices, all kinds
of things that now benefit all of us were a direct result of that.
This is not about morality. Don't get into a trip of saying to a 31.1 in detriment, "Oh my god, this is
terrible." It is not about that. It is simply about recognizing that there are two ways that bring influence.
There are patterns that bring light; there are patterns that bring darkness. That is just the way that it works.
Regarding the term 'darkness', by the way, there are patterns that lead one into the form. There are forms
which lead one into the spirit. This is all part of leadership. It is there. One side or the other. Leadership,
good or bad. That is the nature of it. This moral question, good or bad, is how it is perceived on the
outside, but the reality is that there is no good or bad in leadership. There is only good or bad when you
are making a moral reference to it. It says very clearly as a basis that leadership is never a guarantee for us
in terms of whether it is directly of value to us or whether it is a long term process that is of value to us.
Leadership can appear to be both dark and light in our process. We have that in any kind of political
leadership. The moment that we are unhappy with a political leader, we immediately demonize them and
try to turn them into a dark force rather than into a light force. The moment we elect them, we are very
excited about them and turn them into a light force. After all, a leader is dependent on the energy of the
followers. This is never to be forgotten. All leaders are simply a representation of the energy of their
followers.
31.2 Arrogance
When you get to the second line, you get to a line that is called Arrogance. Remember that the nature of
this hexagram is to transfer a pattern. In that way, you lead. When you come to the second line, you come
to people that are projecting out that they are the leader. Well, yes, but then again, leadership is something
that takes time. You have to develop certain skills. You have to go through a process. If you are five years
old and you are yelling, "I am the leader. Follow mel" you may run into difficulties. If you are 40 years
old and you haven't figured it out and you are yelling, "I am the leader. Follow mel" you will run into
difficulties.
Arrogance is Independent action without guidance. "I want to lead the people," and the people are not
paying any attention. "Maybe I'll do something to get their attention so that they see that I am really there
to lead them." Or the Mercury in detriment. A reasoned arrogance that out of nervous tension jumps the
gun and often misfires. This is one of those things that are so difficult for politicians. It is like you are
planning on running in a political party; you are leading a political party and you are hoping that your
party will eventually take power and things work out, and all of a sudden you are planning on having a
coup d'etat. "Well, if it will not work this way, I will jump the gun because they do not pay any attention."
In the second line, there is no guarantee that that leadership projection carries with it anything worth
transferring. That can only be checked out by those who want to follow. These people who jump the gun
and say "I am ready to lead" are often paper tigers and they can't lead at all. It is one of the most common
things you see in coup d'etats, that you have a bunch of generals who will form a committee in which all
of them are co-presidents. One of them ends up being a leader. These people here: the one who is the
ceremonial leader at the time of the coup gets toppled immediately and is gone when the real one shows
up.
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These people can be paper tigers because they are there saying, "Yes, I am the power to lead." Because
they have that power to lead, they put out that projection and other people say, "Aren't they arrogant.
What makes them think that they can actually lead us?"
By the way, there is a delicious joke to all of this. If you look at the other side of the channel, to the 7.2
which is its resonance, this is the line of The Democrat. This is one of those things to see about the nature
of how democracy works. Democracy itself, what we are empowering, is a lot of independent action
without guidance, which is why we end up with a very corrupt political system. That is another story.
In London, when the English election had just taken place, there was a short piece about a famous writer,
Kenneth Clerk. His son, who is in his late sixties and who is somebody that has been in enormous trouble
with sexual scandals throughout his career, is a conservative representative in a very wealthy
neighborhood. He was asked by a reporter: "What do your clients expect? What do your constituents
expect from you?" and he said, "Well. They expect me to keep them rich." The other question was, "What
about all these sex scandals in your life?" He said: "You know. In politics, to take money is morally
wrong but sex, I don't know. "
I mention that because if you have a system that has no way of getting easy money, what you end up with
is greed and corruption. If you cannot get easy access to the energy, then you have to find some other way
to get to that energy. Every political party that we have has dirt up their sleeves because they are digging
for money somewhere and it does not matter how pretty their name is on the surface. When you get down
into the nitty-gritty, they are all scrounging around for energy. In doing that, all kinds of problems exist,
not that we can do anything about that.
31.3 Selectivity
The nature of a third line is that, in a sense, it is combining the qualities of the first and second line, the
qualities of introspection and projection. It puts them together into this potential for adaptation. When you
get to this third line, you get to the key to successful political leadership which lies here. It is called
Selectivity, which is about recognizing first of all, who should be a follower? This is so important in
terms of influence. If you influence somebody that cannot implement your pattern, there is very little
impact. If you influence somebody that can implement your pattern, it will have a lot of impact. This is
the whole nature of selectivity. It is not about how many people support you. It is about what is the
quality of that support? Who are they?
Sun exalted. The ability to carefully assess and choose the proper influence and to tailor one's behavior
accordingly. Think about that because there is a kind of twist in that. The politician has to be influenced
by the follower, so we have all of these followers. They have lobbies and causes and they all have their
way that they try to influence the person who actually acts as the leader. The leader has to recognize that
every follower that they have has their own agenda. They have to carefully select what influences they
want to accept from their followers in order to maintain their role as a leader of those followers. So, they
have to be very careful and clear about with what those followers want to influence them, so that they can
be their guide, in that sense.
On the other side, we have Jupiter in detriment. Qualitative selectivity with the risk of a runaway
enthusiasm that may lead to humiliation. "You want to follow me? Oh, that is wonderful. Let me give you
all of this stuff to transfer." If that person can't, the energy is wasted and confusion comes out of that. A
lack of influence is generated out of that.
In the white book: The capacity to lead enhanced through association with the proper influences. But
always remember that we are dealing with a third line: adaptation is based on trial and error. You will
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have to deal with bad influences, with the wrong kind of people, the wrong kind of followers, before you
get to the opportunity to recognize how that really works.
At the other side of the line, we have: The drive to lead that will accept any follower and the risks. This is
Jupiter at its worst, in that sense: the expansiveness of Jupiter that says, "Yes, you can come. If you want
to follow me, that is fine. I'll give you this to do." Thus, you end up with all kinds of difficulties in that.
The key for anybody who is carrying third lines is always this recognition that you are going to go
through these processes and you are going to make these mistakes that you will have to learn from.
What you have to learn is that the third line, because it is not yet transpersonal, has this genetic
recognition that it can lead, but it has to make mistakes in leadership before it can recognize that it cannot
do it alone and that it needs the proper forces with it because it is not so much leading with its influence
as it is taking the influence of its followers and channeling it. That is what a leader does.
Today, though it is politically correct to condemn it, we have a political environment in which politicians
very carefully watch the polls. Everybody is screaming and yelling about how we have lost the days
where our politicians directed us instead of the politicians trying to figure out where we want to go and
taking us there. This is a real improvement. This is the essence of how things should work in this context
of influence, that one has to take into account the needs and the direction of the totality, the needs of the
collective, and act as a focus to represent them. No leader actually has their own influence in that sense.
They are always taking the influence of the followers and giving it a focal point. That is the nature of this
line. The third lines learn from its mistakes.
31.4 Intent
When we get to this upper trigram, we get to the fourth and fifth lines which are transpersonal. They are
deeply aware of the other side and deeply aware of the identity and that they need to project out this role
of being a leader. The fourth line, the line of Intent, is an unusual line. Whenever I meet this line in
people's readings, I exactly meet the same phenomena in their lives. The fourth line is about externalizing.
It is about having this one-trackedness that we are very well aware of by now. What you have here is: The
success of influence based on how it is perceived.
Think about how this works. You have two people who have exactly the same problem, theoretically.
They come to the 31.4 with exactly the same problem and the 31.4 transfers their influence to each of
them and tells each of them exactly the same thing. The 31.4 leads them (this is the voice, "I lead") in this
way. You have these two people, they have exactly the same problem, they go to the same leader, the
leader tells them exactly the same thing and one of the two people, no matter how it all comes out, will
love them and the other one will hate them. One of them thinks that they are the best leader that ever lived
and the other will think that they are a terrible, manipulative bastard that should not be in the world.
For the 31 .4, no matter how they externalize it, there are always those that like it and those that do not
like it, no matter whether it is a good or a bad thing. It makes no difference. This is the nature of intent.
The Moon exalted. Public acknowledgment of a nurturing and protective influence. Or Mars in detriment:
Perceived ego aggrandizement and attempted manipulation. If you have that fixed on one side or the
other, your influence can always be perceived as being very nice and valuable and helpful, or your
influence is perceived as being terrible. But for most people who have this line, they are always getting
this polarity, no matter what they do.
In the white book: External positive recognition of one's capacity to lead, or External negative projection
of one's capacity to lead. In other words, it does not make any difference. This is just about externalizing
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the influence and, because this is the resonance to the foundation, everybody who is in the position of
being a leader recognizes that no matter what they do, there will be a segment in the population that hates
it and another segment in the population that loves it.
That is the nature of collective direction. You can't please all of the people all of the time. This is what
this fourth line has to recognize. Very difficult in children. After all, a child that has the 31 st gate is a
child that has within it a genetic capacity to lead, and if they have the fourth line, even when they lead in a
successful way, even when their leadership is of value, they will have to deal with other kids in their
group who will hate them for that, even though other kids love them for the very same leadership.
This can be very difficult, particularly for people who have an undefined emotional system, to be this
kind of leader. The 3 1 .4 with an open emotional system will have such a thin skin and will be so easily
disturbed by the negative side that they will fail to see the positive attributes of their leadership.
It is very important to understand something intrinsic in the collective process: it is not personal. That is
one of the reasons why we do not particularly like our leaders personally. The collective is not personal.
The moment we make it personal, we have a problem. This is collective leadership and, in the collective
sense, you are always going to meet criticism. You will meet those who are satisfied with you and those
who are dissatisfied with you. You need to have a thick skin. Whenever I meet somebody with the 3 I tell
them: you have to have a thick skin because you can't expect that what you do is going to get universal
approval. It will never get universal approval. You get half of the people and the other half will not like it.
That is just the way it works.
31.5 Self-righteousness
The first line always shows us the basic nature of a hexagram and we have seen that the nature of this gate
of Influence is to manifest the influence, to make the transference. When we get to the fifth line, we see
how leadership is perceived by the world and the way people perceive influence and those that carry
influence is this line of Self-righteousness. It is projected on the universal leader that they are only
interested in themselves. They are only interested in power, in being the boss, in being in charge. This is
the standard world view impression of our leaders: that they are in it for their own self-aggrandizement.
Lack of external influence guaranteed by attitude. Pluto exalted. A natural specialization that one
develops in isolation. However, when the development is complete, the extremely difficult and generally
impossible task of externalizing the influence.
This is a line that is universal. These are the only ones in the first five lines of leadership that are really
only interested in being their own leader. The fifth line is interested in being its own leader. It is very
fixed on leading itself. It is not so concerned about being anybody else's leader, but the outside world is
projecting on them, because they look like people who are leading themselves, that they have influence
and are comfortable with their direction. Other people project on them and say, "Hey, what about us?
Why don't you share that with us?"
The fifth line recognizes the pull that is coming from the other side, but the other side, in the 7.5, is The
General. This is about only being a leader in times of crisis. This is not your everyday leader. It is a
difficult task to externalize this quality of leadership and only in times when it is absolutely essential,
when the pressure is the most profound, is there a possibility for these people to externalize that influence.
The Moon in detriment. A deep focus on personal experience that is self-fulfilling and has no external
ambitions. "I am too busy leading my own life, why should I lead yours? My life is much more important
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to me than the collective's life and, aside from that, I do not think that you got it right. " (The resonance to
the arrogance in the second line.)
In the white book: A specialization that demands that one lead oneself; or A lack of ambition where one is
content to lead oneself. These are reluctant leaders, but at the same time, when they do get into power,
they are very effective. Then they get this whole projection on them that they are the self-righteous ones.
I always use the illustration of ancient Greece. Athens would get into trouble and they would hire a
dictator who organized society and the army and got everything done. When everything was coming to a
conclusion, then all the so-called democrats started saying, "They are only concerned about themselves.
They are really self-righteous and not really concerned about us, and thus it's time for them to go. " This is
the real quality of leadership that the outside is projecting on: the self-righteous leader that does not really
care about you, that only cares about themselves and therefore, one has to be concerned about the nature
of their leadership. You can see the resonance in the gate of behavior in the 10.5, The Heretic, saying,
"Why do you force me to lead you? You will only hang me afterwards."
We saw in the fifth lines throughout that they all have to do with timing. We saw in the 8.5, Dharma, that
you have to know when to let people out of your taxi cab. We saw in the 33.5 that you have to have the
right timing in order to know when to release the secrets. The same thing is true for this form of
leadership. It only works at certain times. The time has to be right and then the power of that leadership
can be actualized. It is a matter of timing.
31.6 Application
When we get to the sixth line, we get to the transition line. We know that the transition is rooted in the
awareness frequency of trust or not. "Can I really trust in this? Can it really go beyond?" If you are
looking at the whole logical circuit, "Will this leadership provide humanity with a secure future?" When
you get to the sixth line, you get to the fundamental recognition of limitation. Sixth lines get to see or get
to experience the limitation in their own process.
The sixth line says Application. This is not a gate of action. To manifest logic is very hard. You have to
go down the talent channel and down the 18/58. It is a long process to get to the energy. That is why our
collective systems are corrupt. Political parties are looking for money. It is so difficult to get to the
energy.
This line says: Actions which match the words and thus guarantee success. The 31.6 says, "Yes, I can say
that, but whether that is actually going to happen is another story. I can transfer that influence but whether
it is actually going to manifest is another story. I don't think it really will. I will have to come up with a
leadership, a pattern that is so vital, so essential that humanity will offer its energy to it. Otherwise, it is
not going to work."
When it does not work, when the power to actually manifest as doing is not there, then you get the Moon
in detriment. A superficiality in application that borders on hypocrisy and is justifiably treated
accordingly. People who have the 31.6 learn very early in life that when they say, "I lead. I will do this,"
and then they can't because they do not have access to the energy, they then sound like hypocrites. They
end up saying, "Do what I say not what I do because I can't do it myself." Because they learn that very
quickly, there is a part of them that stands back and says, "I am not going to lead anything because there
is no guarantee that I am going to have the energy to be able to manifest my program." That is like
somebody saying: "I'll be the political leader of this party if you can assure me that everybody is going to
vote for me and I win; Otherwise, I do not want to be the leader. I mean, why should I be the leader of
this party when I can't win and actually influence society? Why should I be the leader of this party if all I
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can do is to talk when I won't be able to do anything about it? I won't be able to show that it really
works."
The joke is that the 31.6 goes to the 33.1. It goes back to Retreat. It goes to the abstract process. The first
line of the gate of Retreat is Avoidance which is all about sitting there and going through this process of
withdrawing so that you can reflect on it. The 31.6 is saying, "What I would really like to be able to see is
that if I am the head of the party: everybody votes for me and then I bring in this program and we
actualize it. Then I can sit over here in the 33rd gate and I can look back at it and say, "Yes, based on
experience, I made a real contribution to society." Puffing the horse before the cart is the whole trap in the
collective process. Don't expect these people to lead you unless they have a chance to get everything. If
they do not have a chance to get it all, if they can't win and direct, they are not going to be in such a hurry
to lead at all.
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HEXAGRAM 32 DURATION
The 32nd hexagram is part of the channel of Transformation, a design of being driven. It is fueled by the
energy of the 54th gate, the Marrying Maiden, the gate of ambition. The 32nd gate, like all gates in the
splenic awareness, like all gates of awareness, is a gate of fear, and the fear of the 32nd gate is the fear of
failure. Because it is the nature of the fear that is associated with this gate, every single line of the 32nd
gate is dealing at some level or another with the fear of failure.
The 32nd gate is Duration, and it is the gate of continuity. It is a deeply conservative gate. It is the mirror
of the emotional revolutionary in the 49 on the other side. It is conservative for the benefit of the tribe. It
is trying to conserve the material success because it does not want to be a failure. Everything about the
instinctive stream has to do with achieving material success for the tribe. The 32nd gate is deeply
concerned about whether or not it will be a success and is very much afraid of failure.
It is an instinctive stream which is deeply related to the nose. People with the 32nd gate can smell failure
coming because they have an attribute which is the remembrance of failure, unlike the 54th gate that can
only remember victory. That is why it is inherently conservative. It can recognize that transformation can
always take place.
The awareness here is to recognize what can be transformed, what should be transformed, or not. The
ambition of the 54 does not always have to be satisfied. There is a time to move up the ladder. There is a
time to change your product line. There is a time to go through these processes. The awareness in the 32
is trying to judge clearly what can and what cannot be transformed.
The awareness potential: this is a liquid regulator. Our memory is in our water. The water in the cells
carries our memory. This is all about a memory stream. Any activation in this stream is always going to
be an indication of deep cellular memory in a human being. There is a memory for what did not work. By
the way, the smell of failure builds up over a lifetime of seeing what does not work and getting a smell of
what does not work so that you can pick up a whiff of that when it is coming.
When you look in the Rave I'Ching at the heading above the line for the 32nd hexagram, it says: The only
thing which endures is change. Don't misunderstand the nature of the 32nd gate. It is conservative, but
radical conservatism leads to annihilation, leads to the end, leads to failure. For example, you have all
these people who are still trying to produce teletype machines after the telefax came. It is time to
recognize that you can only get to some point and then you have to change it. If you don't change, you are
going to be left by the wayside.
Built into the nature of the 32nd gate is always a recognition that what truly endures is change, which is
the evolutionary process. This is about being conservative in terms of what you will change to. This is the
nature of the conservativeness here. It is not about rejecting change. This is very important to understand
because it helps us to recognize that the tribe can be changed because, at its most conservative gate,
change is its nature. It is how one approaches that change.
32.1 Conservation
In the first line, we start with introspection. We are starting with the foundation of the house. The first line
will look inwards. It is the most conservative of all of these lines.
It is called Conservation. A life sustaining respect and attention to all aspects of a process. This is the
ideal of the introspective field. In other words, yes, change is inevitable but I will make sure that I have
all the details before I get involved with that change and leave behind tradition.
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Mars in detriment. An uncontrollable urge to bypass essentials which inevitably leads to the disruption of
continuity. Because it is the tribe and because it is inherently conservative, if you jump over the details,
you will not be able to make the transition from what was old to what can be new. There will be
something missing and you will end up with all kinds of problems associated with this.
The first line: because it is essential to the tribe, the detail is essential. What you have with the detriment
are tribes that make jumps. For example, you can see that we find some Neolithic tribes in the middle of
the Amazonian jungle, and what do we bring them? We bring them frying pans and mirrors. We bring
them this whole leap, this whole transformation in their culture, and all the detail is missing in between.
So many aboriginal people have suffered because there has been this enormous gap between their culture
and the one that is coming and imposing their way upon them without the detail being there. Those within
the aboriginal culture who made that jump, because they do not have the details, that inevitably leads to
problems. They do not have continuity. They lose their culture. They jump into the other culture. They
don't have the ability to bring the culture along and allow it to mature with new technology and new
input.
The first line is about introspection. When the introspection is missing, failure can happen. The failure
will be there in the continuity. The fear is that, once you see that the change is inevitable (this is the
channel of being driven), there is this enormous urge to just change. Damn the details. "I want that mirror;
I don't care about the Madonna."
One has to be careful with this. It is intended to be very conservative. It is the foundation of the tribe's
success. The material success in the tribe is, "Okay, but let's keep our continuity." All the aboriginal
people that were integrated into other cultures now make their living by selling their aboriginal art. They
kept their culture and it becomes a material success for them because their continuity is of value. They've
brought the past into the future and they can offer it and still provide for the nature of the tribe.
When you are looking at the ego circuit, you are looking at the two streams that go to the ego. The
emotional stream that goes to the ego, the stream of sensitivity, is all about communal life. The communal
life is looking for the initiation (25/51). Here, you have a natural flow that takes place and this is not
about communal life but life in the corporate culture. It is about the work structure. Who is working with
whom and how we work together is organized in this stream. It begins in the 45th gate which is the owner
of the company. The 21st gate is the president, the 26th gate is the salesman or the head of sales, the 44th
gate is the personnel manager and the 32nd gate is the financial officer.
The 32nd gate decides whether money is spent or not and on what money is spent. They have a great deal
of power because of that and because below the financial manager are all these people in the 54 who try
to climb up the corporate ladder, the Marrying Maidens who want to go all the way up to the top and be
the CEO. The 54's are always trying to be familiar with the 32's. The 32s are always in a situation where
the Marrying Maidens, with their ambition, are trying to get the financial officer to invest in things so that
the transformation and the change can take place.
32.2 Restraint
Ilm the Rave I'Ching it says: The control of power for the.benefitand enhancement of Jrarmony. "I will
not proviide imomey for this person to be hired." 5d's,are always trying to be familiar. That is their job..
Like the 19's on the Other side, they are always flirting. Tlhe 5d"s flirt to be familiar: you go up to the
boss while he is having his dinner and say, "Good evening, Mr. So and so," and they book at you and say,
"Do I know you?" "Yes, I work in the department."
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The other side of this jupiter in detriment. A tendency in frustration, ;particularly from a position of
strength, to social withdrawal rather than persistent control. The projection here is that II have to control
everything, 'phase people are control freaks. Tlhis leads directly to the 21.
This is very tribal business. "I have -to control the resources to make sure that there is no failure. I am
either going to control it harmoniously or in a way that people are very uncomfortable -with ime. I say,
you are Hired." That is what the :32 can always say. I can look -at the Marrying Maiden and say, *Yes,
very nice." The same one that comes up to the 'boss and says, "Good morning, Mr. So-and-so," if the boss
looks at you and says, "Who are you?" then you Will not make your way up the ladder.
Restraint is what the note is here. The potential for transformation that may be beneficial to others. But
the second line is in control of this, projecting it out. We know that second lines can lead to problems due
to their projection. The 32.2 can get into trouble projecting into the Marrying Maiden and saying, "Yes,
this is a wonderful idea. This is what we will do. This is what will be the change." They are just
projecting it out. They project their power, "I have got the pocket book. I am projecting my power." This
creates problems and disharmony.
The frustration with controls or being controlled. The frustration of having to control people all the time.
Once you project power outwards, then you are stuck having to live with it.
For analysts, all second lines are difficult to read because, basically, we do not want to tell people things
that we think, moralistically, are uncomfortable. You don't want to tell somebody about their 58.2, that
they have the line of Perversion. Everybody gets very nervous. When you are looking at the second line,
the thing to recognize is that it is a part of your nature that will get into trouble, and you are supposed to.
After all, it is a learning process.
A second line is not by its very nature a problem and, at the same time, design is a duality. The restraint
can be there. Those who project learn to recognize projection. This is part of the process. There is a
maturity that can take place in this process. But there is a great deal of frustration that is rooted in this.
Projecting out power means that you have to back it up and, if you can't back it up, you get into trouble.
That is where the fear of failure comes in. Can I project my control and maintain it without creating
disharmony or problems? That would be a failure. No tribal organization, no corporation, can function
unless there is some level of harmony within the corporate culture. Otherwise, it does not work.
This is one of the things we had when we were living in a second line phase that existed around the birth
of Hitler (1888 until 1961) when we were in the previous global cycle. We have been in the first line
since 1961. Since 1888, we have witnessed the wars that took place: the Russian Japanese War, the First
and Second World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, all during a time of projection. The
projecting of power. All second lines are trying to project out power and they can't necessarily back it up.
We've lived through an era of projection of power and we saw how devastating that could be to the
planet. We also saw that, out of that, we have our modern age. There is no good or bad in the movie.
There is just the movie.
32.3 Lack of continuity
This is simply stepping out there for the first time, trying to go across that channel and trying to make
contact with the 54 on the other side, and the recognition that the 54 is really there. What the 54 is will
condition the nature of what the 32 is, this recognition of adaptation that has to take place within the
channel. It is called Lack of continuity. This is exactly opposite to the nature of this hexagram which is
about continuity. One can be very irresponsible in terms of the nature of how one is conservative.
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Mercury exalted. Indecision and persistent reevaluation, that only because of its basic intelligence
manages to endure. The thing to recognize here is that this position of the 32nd gate is inherently
intelligent. If you look at signs of intelligence in somebody's chart there are many, by the way-the 32nd
hexagram is one of them. It is a sign of intelligence.
The Jupiterian side is: An over-reliance on traditionally legitimized standards that in times of change can
be totally out of step and suffer unexpected humiliation. This is the whole thing about third lines anyway.
You make a bond and then the bond gets broken and there is going to be all kinds of stuff that gets left as
the debris of that. This is all about the fear of failure.
Indecision in times of transformation. "What do I do and who do I do it with? Do I do it with you? If I do
it with you, I cannot do it my way. I have to do it our way."
The other side of this: A lack of instinct in times of transformation. Not being able to get it at the right
time. Not being able to adapt at the right time. The three is the kind of person that says to you, "Yes,
maybe that will work. I'll think about it.." Then they meet you again and they tell you,. "Yes, I really think
that I will do it. Let's set up a contract." They do not really know. It is indecisionL Everything gets
prollonged. They are not really certain what to do with all of that. The whole thing them can fall apart. All
of a sudden, you call them up for the day of the signing and they are not there anymore )because they
have broken that bond entirely, and it's gone.
32.4 Right is might
Whenever you come to the fourth line, remember the resonance between first and fourth linen You are
coming to the upper trigram and you come to aichange in the nature of the frequency. The fourth line is
about externalization, the ometrack., You take one. aspect and run along with it: We also know that fourth
lines are ihheremily corrupt or being corrupted.
Here we have Right is; might.. Think about that because that is the one-crack. Everything is about the
power. If you have the power, you are right. Even in times of change, certain underlying principles
endure. Whoever controls, the! purse, controls, the purse. Where Jupiter will establish right action in, the
larger social realm, Saturn will lead to inner strength and endurance as long as: it is not threatened from
the ouiside.
The instinct to maintain one's principles in times of change; or The instinct to maintain one's principles as
long as one's security is not threatened. Either you have the power to maintain it, no matter what (Right is
might) and you corrupt others with that ("I have the power and you do what I say whether you think that
that is right or not."), or the other side is: "I can only have the power if you do what I tell you to do. I will
make sure that I will not have people that are working for me who do not listen to my orders, whether
they like them or not." This is just a one-track. It is neither good nor bad. It can be very successful when
the principles are correct. If the values are not correct, they still have that one -track-mind.
32.5 Flexibility
The fifth line is the fulfillment of the essence of what the hexagram is. It is the capacity to universalize, to
be able to bring it out, not only to the gate that is at the other end of the channel, but to begin the process
of moving into the circuitry. This is something that has a broader movement. Due to its collective
keynote, it is an aspect that can bring the tribe to collective change.
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This is something that we deal with in the tension of the world today. For example, the United Nations, as
a collective organization, wants the Bosnians, the Serbs and the Croats, who are tribal, to make peace
with each other. If you want to look at the fulfillment of this hexagram, it is about the flexible projection
of power. Fifth lines resonate to second lines. It is no longer the pure projection of the second line. This is
the next step up in this structure. This projection here is all about recognizing that one has to be flexible in
the way one projects outwards.
Flexibility. Easy adaptation to circumstances. Moon exalted. Superficiality is a valuable tool that while
masking the inner light permits adaptation to prevailing conditions. This is all about keeping it
underneath. You know that you have the power to project but circumstances are not allowing you to
project your power at this moment. So you bide your time. You wait and see. You wait for your
opportunity and then you project it out.
Mars on the other side: The urge to express oneself in direct and often violent rejection of conformity.
Conformity is the nature of the tribe which is deeply conservative. The violence in this is mirrored on the
other side in the 49.5. It is mirrored in the possibility of being able to fulfill revolution so that revolution
becomes a universalized process. In that, there is always the possibility here for vast change in the nature
of the tribe. Suddenly, the tribe can be brought to a point of becoming one with the collective, in that
sense.
An instinct for adaptation in times of change. To know when to project your power and when not to.
Remember, underneath that is the fear of failure. "I'd better not project my power out because, if I do so, I
destabilize everything so I'd better hold that all back inside of me and wait and see what happens."
The potential of the instinct to reject adaptation and conformity in times of change. The keynote: in times
of change. That is the only time this is going to come into play. These are the kind of people that you
want holding the purse strings when there is a vast change in the society around you. They are the ones
who should be in power in those moments. What happens is that they are the ones that naturally have the
greatest impact in times of change.
One of the classic examples that you know about is in corporations and what they call downsizing. This is
the detriment. This is very common. We are not going to look after all the people in the company
anymore who have been loyal to us for 25 years, who have been our family and allowed us to become
wealthy. We will fire all of them because our shareholders need profits. We are in times of change
because we have a globalizing economy, and I am sorry you have to be the victim. We really wanted to
do this five years ago, but now we can do it. "
It depends on where you are in that. If you are victim, this is a terrible thing. It appears to be deeply
violent in that sense. If you are not the victim, it can just mean being flexible. The person who is making
that decision says, "look, if I do not fire these five thousand workers, the Indonesians will steal my market
and all my other 25,000 workers will lose their jobs and my shareholders will go mad." That is the other
side of the story. These things are not one -dimensional. That is the universalizing element.
Whenever you see fifth lines in a chart, whenever you see transits that are affecting fifth lines, you know
that there is a special kind of element at work that is trying to get things projected outward in a much
larger field. This is a universalizing process.
32.6 Tranquility
Here, we get to the roof of the house and we are not in the house anymore. The nature of the hexagram is
going through a transformation. This is one of those lines that I kept running into so often because it can
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be depressive and because we had Neptune activating the other side of it. Therefore, we have a whole
generation of people in the early 1990's that went into all kinds of severe depressions due to the nature of
this line.
Consider that the tribe is essentially materialist even when it is being communal at the other side.
Communalism is all about coming up with a bargain so that everybody has what they need. Tribal life is,
by its very nature, material. This aspect of the tribe, moving up to the instinctive stream, is what is
essential. It is the ability to recognize what will work, what change to accommodate, in order that the
continuity of the material success of the tribe can survive, so that we need not be afraid of failure.
The fear of failure is a theme that we all live with. It is a global theme: this deep sense that we cannot fail,
that we must have the material that we need. When you get to the sixth line, it is kind of like, "Well, I am
not really interested in just that. There must be something else other than just climbing up the corporate
ladder, making our bread and butter, doing our job."
The sixth line is called Tranquility. Change is inevitable. The projection of power in the 32nd hexagram is
trying to make sure that transformation can take place, that there won't be a failure. It is trying to be
conservative, trying to continue things. This line says, "Yes, okay, but everything changes. Nothing stays
the same. Everything just keeps on changing. Am I supposed to control that?"
The sixth line is not about control anymore. It is a need now. The need to calmly face impermanence.
Pluto exalted. An underlying acceptance of change that may or may not lead to tranquility. It may, or it
may not. On the other side, Neptune in detriment. Impermanence as proof of meaninglessness with its
attendant manifestations, depression, delusion, and in the extreme, self-destruction. "The tribe is
meaningless, this business is meaningless. Why should I spend 20 years of my life investing in this
business when it will fall apart anyway due to changes in the society? Why did I spend all this money
making hula-hoops? It will change. Why did I get involved with 8-track tapes? It will change." There is
this sense of: "Why bother? Nothing is stable, nothing will last. I will kill myself."
In the white book: The instinctive awareness to accept change and transformation; or The fear engendered
when change is experienced as impermanence and the potential for depression.
Whenever you come to the nature of the sixth line, please recognize that it is always looking for the next
hexagram. The next hexagram is the 50, the values, and the first line is The Immigrant. The whole thing
for the sixth line to recognize is that transition is always there and they will always be The Immigrant.
This is their whole thing. These are not the people to establish a business that is going to last forever.
They have to be very clear that all of this is coming anyway. They are here to ride the wave so that they
can be the immigrants that can establish the new values out of what the change brings. These people can
be visionaries. They can look ahead and say: "I will not do this because I can see what is coming. What is
coming is either going to frighten them or it gives them a sense of tranquility. "Yes, I can see the change
is coming. I do not want to get involved with this. I can wait to discover what my values will be in what is
coming."
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HEXAGRAM 33 RETREAT
We will now look at one of the two collective gates of identity, this one in the abstract process. (The other
is the logic process in the 31.) The channel 33/13 is the channel of the Prodigal; it is the channel of the
witness. The identity of the abstract process is rooted in what we call reflection and remembrance.
Reflection and remembrance are part of this 13/33. The voice of the 33rd gate is not a voice that says, "I
know I can contribute." This is a voice that says, "I remember," or "I don't remember". This is the
remembrance that takes place at the end of an abstract process and the 33rd gate is one of the three gates
of aloneness. The 12th gate, the 40th gate and the 33rd gate are the three gates of aloneness.
Whenever I am dealing with abstract people, whether they have this gate or not, or the 13, I always
remind them that, in order for them to truly make sense out of their life, they have to have time in which
they reflect. At the end of each day, at the end of each ongoing process, they would benefit from making
an auric space for themselves where they are not being influenced so that they can have an opportunity to
reflect on the experience that they have been through.
This 33rd gate, Retreat, is the gate of privacy. It is the privacy that says, "I will not be able to remember
everything unless I am left alone so that I can reflect on this process, and then I will be able to remember
that and, in remembering that, I'll share my reflection with you. The 33rd gate, at its mystical level, is the
gate of revelation. The unconscious 33 can speak of an unconscious remembrance that emerges out of the
unconscious and, as such, can have a deep mystical impact.
Above the lines, it says: Active withdrawal... This is not passive withdrawal; this is not running away.
This is not a gate that says, "I want to be alone because I have to hide." This is a gate that says, "I need to
be alone in order to survive. I need to be alone in order to be clear." ...and the transformation of a weak
position into a strength. Every abstract person is at their weakest point at the moment that an experience
ends. This is the weakest point for an abstract person because their temptation is to jump into the next
experience without reflecting on what they have been through. What happens to so many abstract people
is that they keep on repeating the same experience and that is not what the abstract process is about. It is
about having an experience, reflecting on it, recognizing its fundamental worth and then going on to the
next experience, thus turning a weak position into a strength. The weakest position of the abstract being is
the moment that the experience is over and it is at that point that privacy, separateness, aloneness and the
opportunity for reflection is essential. This is a minor point.
The abstract process being what it is, you can never know anything while you are in it. An abstract person
can never know anything about the experience while they are in it. That is why the key to the abstract
process is the 46/29, which begins with the concept that you have made a commitment and, in that
commitment, you are in the right place at the right time. The 29 makes a commitment and the 46 says, "I
am in the right place at the right time." As long as you accept that, it does not matter what is going on in
the experience because you can know nothing about it while you are in it. You can only learn from the
experience when it is over. So, it is very important for abstract people to reflect on their experience and
not simply to collect experiences.
33.1 Avoidance
The first line, the foundation of this hexagram, says Avoidance., After all, this is the framework of the
identity of the abstract person: avoid everyone until you have reflected and then you can share your
remembrance. Then you can offer your witnessing. That is what it is about, offering the witnessing.
The wisdom in a weak position... ('Weak position' meaning that you finish an experience: that is your
weakest point.) ... to recognize that survival demands complete withdrawal. Pulling away is the key to the
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nature of Retreat. Retreat is there to build strength and abstract strength is built through reflection.
Without reflection one can be a fool over and over again. It is okay to be a fool once. If you reflect on it
and understand the nature of what you have experienced, you don't have to be the fool the second time.
Mars in detriment. Where courage is just plain foolishness. This is a person that will not reflect but jump
to the next thing. Or, in the sense that it is the identity out of the throat, "I will not reflect on my
experience and remember it in depth. I will simply babble it all out the moment that it is over." The
moment that the experience is over, the abstract person does not know anything about it. Whatever they
babble out will only be an aspect of the wave that they have been through, and not the proper reflection.
In the white book: Retreating when one realizes that one is in a weak position. Again, at the end of the
experience is the weakest point. On the other side: Unable to retreat when overwhelmed by stimulation.
This is the key to that. The abstract person that is pulled from one experience immediately to the next, this
is always going to be a problem for them. When you are an abstract person and you are in the middle of a
process and, all of a sudden, there is an emergency, if you are drawn away, in that moment, from what
you are doing, you lose the value of everything that you have been doing because you won't be able to
reflect on it. If you can't reflect on it when the experience is over, you will not remember it. You will not
be able to bring out of that the necessary qualities for the remembrance.
In the relationship between the hexagram and the genetic codon structure, we have three genetic codons
that are called stop codons. Stop codons literally are the punctuation points at the end of a genetic
expression. Two of the genetic stop codons are in the abstract process in the throat. We will see in the
56th gate the abstract voice that says, "I believe" or "I don't believe". This is a stop codon. In other words,
the conceptual idea is nothing that goes any further than its capacity to be able to express and share it. The
33rd hexagram is a stop codon and so is the 12. Here, the process comes to an end when the reflection is
complete. We saw that the introspection of the first line is the recognition of the value of privacy and its
power, because one can grow in that.
33.2 Surrender
When you get to the second line, you get to a projected field and you get to somebody who projects
outwards that they are private. They are projecting outwards that they are the reflecting ones. They are
projecting outwards that they are the ones that remember. Remember the nature of the paper tiger. They
may or may not remember; they may or may not enjoy their privacy. All of these things are possibilities
in their process.
Jupiter exalted. The recognition that surrender to superior forces... ('Superior forces' are anything that is
going to pull you into a new experience. After all, the abstract being is trapped by the experiential wheel.
These are people that are really on the wheel. There is this constant pressure on them to enter into another
experience.) ...can be an opportunity to expand one's own strength and eventually triumph. In other
words, it is better to wait and avoid a temptation and build up one's reflective capacity, and that may lead
to success in the future.
In the white book: Embracing powerful forces in order to lay the foundation for future success. Because
this is a projected field, you have people who are saying "Leave me alone," but they do not necessarily
know why. They know that they need to be left alone at the end of an experience, but it is not like they are
actually using that to get into a deep reflective process. They may or they may not. What they recognize
genetically is that it is better for them to be apart, to have this aloneness and the opportunity to be separate
than it is to get hooked up into another experience. This is the genetic structure in that. Remember, this is
a stop codon saying, "Okay, no more." These are people that can be very withdrawn, without that
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necessarily being an advantage. These are the people that can complain about having to be alone, for
example.
Neptune in detriment. Unlike the reasoned and calculated surrender above, the deeper and personal
surrender. The feeling that one's original position was a delusion and the impressionability that makes
might right. In the white book: A public embrace of powerful forces and a private resentment of their
power. There is a deep resentment when one cannot complete one's process and, the moment that
powerful forces are there and pulling on you to remember, if you are not clear (in this line we are dealing
with projection), you can really feel like, "Oh, that whole experience was a waste." Imagine what this is
like for somebody who is going through an experience and, when they finish that experience, before they
really have a chance to reflect on it in order to see what its value really was, they get pulled by other
forces; they get pulled to remember and share their witnessing. What they say does not carry the clarity of
their experience.
In that moment, by not having impact on those that are pulling that out, they can feel like, "Well, that
whole experience was a waste because I did not really get to see what it was. My reflection on that is not
of value," and they put that out into the world and get smashed for that by the outside because they are not
paying any attention to it.
This is all about the process of development, of being able to project these things outwards, but every
time that you have a second line, you always have to see that you are going to be challenged in that
process. Anybody who is projecting out is going to meet a very strong challenge coming back at them.
The 33rd gate, because it is the gate of privacy, is the gate of being closed in, in that sense. That is, being
closed in a room, or somebody that is forced to go into retreat by being sent to jail or by ending up in a
monastery, or retreat through illness and states of paralysis. In the second line, you see people that are
locking themselves up in a room and, when you get to the fifth line, you can see that the outside world
will lock you up in the room.
33.3 Spirit
With the third line, we reach the end of the lower trigram process. Here the bond that is being made and
broken is the bond of privacy. These are people that will naturally seek out their privacy, that is part of
their process, but it will not be like the second line which is just focused on that. In the third line, there is
the beginning of the recognition that there is the other. It is the beginning of that process. It is not really
there until the fourth line. In the capacity to adapt is the recognition that one has to come out of the
privacy when it cannot just be held back inside.
The attitude that turns retreat into victory. The victory comes after the reflection. This is the whole
beauty. The weakest point is at the end of the experience. The power comes after the reflection and then
the real value of the remembrance can bring about victory, the completion of this process.
Jupiter exalted. The responsible and principled retreat based on preservation, but with the determination
to persevere. In other words, "Yes, leave me alone now. I have to think about all of this but I'll see you
tomorrow." This is not "Leave me alone, I never want to see you again." This is the other side of this line
with Mars in detriment. A lack of responsibility in retreat. The bridge burner. "I have reflected on all of
this. I never want to have anything to do with you again. It's over." These people go into retreat, reflect
and break whatever the bond was. This is the kind of person that says "Leave me alone now. I want to go
home and think. I will see you tomorrow." The next day, they will call you up and say, "I don't want to
see you anymore, I have thought about it." In other words, they can just simply break the bond at that
point.
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This line is called Spirit. The spirit that lies within the whole nature of Retreat is that these people are
essential for us. If these people do not tell us about the experience, we don't learn. So, there is also a part
of us that is trying to get them out of that retreat so that they share their secrets, their reflections, with us.
After all, this is a collective gate. There is a lot of pressure on these people to share what it is that they
have inside of them.
In the white book: Privacy as a path to success; or A drive for privacy that will cut off its relationships,
often abruptly. All of this is due to the nature of reflection. These people know that they have to go into
retreat and they know that they have to reflect, but the moment that the reflection is not positive for them,
it is very easy for them to break off the contact. These people can be disliked for that. There is the
moment where they'll cut you off and you don't get access to their remembrance, to their experience,
anymore.
33.4 Dignity
Remember, you are dealing here with a collective channel, a collective process and identity. The
collective is rooted in sharing and when you get to the upper trigram, you get to the transpersonal lines in
which they are very much aware that there is a harmonic gate at the other side. The harmonic gate to the
33 is the 13, the Fellowship of Man, the gate of secrets. There are secrets in the 13 that the 33 can be
aware of and recognize that it has to get access to these secrets. When it gets access to those secrets
through reflection, it can then reveal them. The fourth line of the 33 is as close as you come to finding a
line that is religious. I did not say spiritual and I did not say mystical, I said religious.
The whole abstract process is rooted in belief and this fourth line, which is about externalization and
about being onetracked, is called Dignity. A lack of turmoil in retreat.
Pluto exalted. The underlying faith in resurrection that turns retreat into an opportunity for renewal and
regeneration.
This is the kind of retreat where people say, "I have to go and meditate. I have to go and be silent in order
to be empowered." In that silence or in that retreat, they seek out that power in order for them to feel
better about what it is that they have gone through as an experience in life.
But the terminology itself (renewal, regeneration, resurrection, all of these processes), when you get to the
Neptunian detriment: Without the guiding light of resurrection, the inevitable dissolution that leads to
degeneration. These people are very fixed on being able to see that what they can reflect on can truly be
of value. They understand that they have a responsibility, genetically speaking, to be a witness. There is
an aspect of them (see the resonance to the first line, first principle: avoid the outside) that needs this deep
reflective process in their life. They will be the kind of people that get involved in all kinds of different
levels of meditation.
In terms of the white book: The healthy retreat for regeneration. "I need to get away from everything. I
need to go through my process and I think things out, and I need to make sense out of my life." This is a
common attribute for these people. If they can't make sense out of their life, out of that process when they
are in retreat, unless they have faith, they are going to get depressed. Unless they have faith, they will feel
like the whole thing is just a waste and they can become very sad people.
These people really need some cosmic level of hope, even if it is not true, that the time in their aloneness
is of value for them. They will seek out formulas for that like sitting in a church on Sundays, getting
down on their knees on Fridays, going up on the Himalayas on any given day. All of these rituals are
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there to go through this process of being separate and at the same time, in stillness, with the hope that, in
this quietness, somehow life can be resolved.
33.5 Timing
You know that the fifth line operates in a wave that we call 'the seducer and the seduced.' So it is all about
seduction. It is one of the things to recognize about the nature of all fifth lines: they all are deeply related
to the question of timing. This line personifies that in its name. This is the line of timing.
The fifth line is always getting projected on. So, in that sense, they are getting projected on that they are
the seducer, but because of the projection coming from the outside, it does not mean that they are ready to
fulfill that projection at the time when the projection is there. There is always this pressure of the fifth line
where there is this projected field on the outside which is trying to pull them into some kind of response
that they may or may not be ready for.
If you have a child with the 33.5, you have a parent that says, "Why don't you stay in your room and play
by yourself and close the door?" It is being projected on that child that he or she needs that privacy and
that withdrawal. This is a projected field, and a lot of 33.5 children get locked up in their rooms very
often. It is projected on them that they need to be alone and private. Due to this projection, it is even
projected on them that they are not really social, or capable of it.
Timing. Pluto exalted. As important as the timing itself is the ability to keep secret one's intentions until
the appropriate moment. This is the magic: that remembrance can bring in the right timing. Everything
about this process is about reflection: going through it and completing it, and only then the capacity to be
able to act on that and verbalize that, as in this particular case. What that means is that, until the reflection
is done, you cannot give in to the pressure from the outside. You can't. Only in the right moment, only
when the reflection is done, then you have the power to universalize that reflection.
In the white book: The ability to keep one's intentions secret. You keep the secret until you know. In other
words, the reflective abstract person is always at risk when they try to involve others in that process
because they do not have their own opportunity to go through it and see it clearly. They can only express
themselves when they are ready.
Jupiter in detriment. A tendency to want others to participate in the selection of the timing, which can lead
to confusion. In the white book: Without a sense for timing, letting others in on the secret prematurely
with resulting confusion. Let us say that you are reflecting on how you experience your work, day by day,
and you recognize, as you reflect each day at the end of your work, that you really do not like your job.
Day by day, each reflection brings you closer to that point where you are really clear about that. "This is
not a work for me. I have reflected on that. I am clear about that." At the moment that you are really clear,
you can quit your job, but only at that moment. That is the exalted.
The detriment works in another way. You have this ongoing process on reflecting about the quality of
your workplace and you do not like it. Then you start talking to somebody that you work with and you
say to them, "You know. I don't really like this job and I am really thinking that maybe this is not for me,
and maybe I should do something else." In that moment of seeking out somebody else's reflection,
experience or guidance, in that moment anything is possible. That person can have a friend who needs
your job and can go to the boss and say, "Louise is not happy. She is thinking of quitting." Louise goes
home that night, goes through her reflective process and realizes, "I really do like my job. I just have bad
days." She comes into the office the next morning and the boss comes over and says, "You are fired. We
do not like to work with people who hate their job." Whether this event is good or bad for Louise is open.
This is not about a moral question. This is simply about mechanics.
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There are going to be these people who will always let others in. They just do. Sometimes that will be
very confusing and sometimes that confusion will work its way through. It is not about whether this is
good or bad. It is just about recognizing that that is the mechanic. To recognize that something is a
mechanic is in order that you can come to grips with accepting yourself. If you are somebody that cannot
get to the point where you have the right timing and you know that that timing is going to be disturbed by
others, at least, you can see that that is correct for you. It is not about changing it. It is about recognizing
what is correct for you. The moment that you recognize that that mechanism is you and correct for you,
the moment you surrender to that, you will find out what its value is. It is not without value. It is just one
of many ways in which this reflective process works.
33.6 Disassociation
We get to the sixth line, to the transition line. The formula for the sixth line is that they are not necessarily
going to be fulfilling the potential of the gate. There is something that is of greater importance to them
because the sixth line is not simply transpersonal in the sense that it understands the harmonic gate; in this
case it knows the secrets of the other end. It is more than that. It wants to see the whole complete circuit.
It wants to see that the reflection covers everything, so that, out of that reflection, the proper remembrance
can be established so that humanity can be guided. After all, this is at the root of what we call history and
philosophy. All of this information, all of this capacity to be guided by past experience, so much of it is
rooted here at the end of this abstract process in the 33rd gate.
We have a line here of Disassociation. The ability to let go. This is a kind of withdrawal in which the
retreat can be so complete that these people can walk through the world and be totally disconnected from
it. The nature of reflection can be nothing more than an ongoing personal process because no reflection is
really of value to the totality unless it can be a reflection that can add to the experience of humanity and
humanity will accept that as a way to see themselves.
In the white book: The ability to let go in retreat, to enjoy privacy. These people can enjoy privacy for its
own sake and feel no pressure to be brought out of their privacy. They can be private all the time. These
are the kind of people that are private when they are public or when they intimate. They can always be
private. These are people that will always hold things inside of them because there is no sense in
revealing what they remember unless it can make a contribution to society.
We have this funny twist that goes in the abstract. It is very beautiful. When we are looking at the 56.6, at
the abstract belief process, "I can stimulate you with my belief," we see that it goes to the 31.1 which is
the gate of Influence, the gate of saying "I lead," or "I do not lead". So it goes from the abstract 56.6 to the
logical leadership. Here, in the 33.6, the very next line is the 7.1. The 7 and the 31 form the channel of
logical leadership together. In other words, both aspects of the abstract process, both the mental process
and its identity, what they really want most of all is that it is just not another idea. That it is just not
another experience. That it can be of value to guide humanity into the future.
Human beings always want to be what they want. Logical people want to be able to reflect on the past,
and abstract people want to be able to project into the future. Here, in this Disassociation, there is the
capacity to simply just let go of all that because, unless that you have a reflection that is going to guide
humanity and lead them, it is not worthwhile.
I am born into a generation that has Pluto in this gate. I have my design Pluto in 33.6, in Disassociation,
this letting go completely. I lived for three and a half years totally alone and wild without any sense or
need to go back in. Not only that, but with all the information that was going on inside of me, there was
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no need to share it with anybody because, at that point, it just did not seem to be something to give to
humanity, not that I was thinking in those terms.
The reality is that when you get to the sixth line, there is this "Why should I bother? Why should I trust in
this?" And as we see, the logic is trying to go to the abstract to see that its projection into the future can be
experienced and recognized for its value and the abstract wants to project into the future and wants
everybody to know that its experience can really be of value to the collective. This is this twist that goes
on in the collective process.
Every sixth line carries within it what some people call a potential for satori, or transcendence. We have
many words for that. All sixth lines are about that. What that really means is that the sixth line has much
tougher criteria for living out its nature than the other lines. In other words, it is much more concerned
with larger principles. As such, it can end up being transcendent, wise and of value to society as a whole.
But, being what it is, the vast majority of human beings never really get to live out their sixth lines. They
tend to be the opposite of what the hexagram says. An enormous amount of arrogance is projected onto
people with sixth lines from the outside. You can see that in the 44.6, in the nature of aloofness. There is
this sense that they are not really participating.
If you hook into somebody's sixth line in an electro-magnetic connection, it is not like hooking into any of
the other lines. You do not even know if they are really responding to you. They may. They may not. It
depends on whether the hookup that they get from you can go beyond into many other things. I never
have seen a design that did not impress me. I am not saying that to be quaint. This is the nature of what it
is. The fact that we all do not live out what we are is another story. Very few people live out the potential
that is there in their design. They live out the potential of their conditioning. Not only do they not get an
opportunity to live out the true nature of the 6, they do not even get to live out themselves first. You can't
get there anyway. It is quite a process. A 33.6, at the end of their reflection process can say, "Never
again!" as a kind of value for humanity.
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HEXAGRAM 34 THE POWER OF THE GREAT
When you from the 14.6 to the first line of the 34, you step into another process, but it is a continuing
process, in that sense. The 34th gate and the 20, the 40 and the 37, and the 23 and 43 are the three
oppositions in the zodiac that form definitions in the Rave chart. You are dealing with a high level of
commonality here. In other words, there is a greater abundance of those six gates because they happen
more often in the polarity of opposition of Sun/Earth and Nodes.
This 34th gate of Power is an extremely complex gate; it does not just look for one thing. It has three
different ways in which it can go and it is a very intense power field. The 34th gate, due to its
commonality, has a very special value, like the 3rd gate. The 3rd gate tells us about the nature of what it is
to be alive.
The nature of confusion and that the transcending of confusion leads to order. This is the nature of life,
but the 34th gate speaks of the energy for survival itself. It is one thing to be alive, but it is another thing
to die. The 3 is not there to keep us alive. The 34 is. It is the nature of the 34th gate to enhance our
survival of individuals. It is literally there to fuel life itself. The power to individuate comes out of the
34th gate.
34.1 The Bully
When you look at any gate, the first line speaks for its nature. The nature of what it is to empower
survival, the basis and foundation of empowering survival, is to be a bully. Above the lines it says: Power
is only great when its display or use serves the common good. 'Its display...' Power people never have to
use their power all the time; they can show it. If you watch animals confronting each other because they
have a conflict over territory, they put on an incredible show. Listen to two cats arguing over who belongs
in the backyard. This is an incredible performance of display. There is no real power being used. The
power is secondary. Someone who has the 34th gate in an undefined sacral center is not the kind person
that will be able to push their power out all the time.
The Bully. The indiscriminate use of power. Saturn exalted. The less negative, the resort to power as a
manifestation of frustration. To stay alive is a frustrating process because it is an ongoing, moment by
moment, day by day process. You can have a job and feed yourself today, but if you do not go to work the
next day then you give all that up. How will you survive? It is an ongoing process of releasing that power.
Pluto in detriment. The comeuppance that is the inevitable destiny of the bully. In order to survive you
have to be able to show your power. If you don't do that, you will only stay alive out of the generosity or
kindness of others. Don't bet on it. You have to live out your own power to stay alive.
The energy to display power as a response to frustration. The frustration is all about: "Don't get in the way
of my survivall" We are here to be able to survive alone. That is our nature. It doesn't matter whether you
have the 34th gate or not. You get it all the time from other people or transits.
The ever present risk of retaliation to power displays. This line does not say: use power. This is the
indiscriminate display of power. It is not the use of power. The bully does not really have to do anything
to you other than scare you. The 34. 1 realizes that it has this power and it knows that if it does not show
this power, it will be difficult for it to stay alive. This is the whole thing for human beings to understand. I
meet so many people who, through conditioning, have been made weak. I am a pure individual and I ride
this wave of how wonderful it is to be empowered and alone in the survival of life. How difficult it is for
people to show their power. How difficult it is for them to see that there is somebody in their life that isn't
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good for them and they do not have the power to defend their survival and say, "Please, I cannot survive
with you." People who have jobs that they hate and do not have the power to say, "I cannot do this. This
is not for me."
The 34th gate goes to the 57. It goes to the creation of the archetype for survival, to be alive as a human
being. The fear of the 57th gate is the fear of tomorrow, the fear of consequences, the fear of what can
happen to us. It is so important to understand that the very basis of power is display. In the animal world,
display works most of the time and conflict is generally avoided and survival is ensured. Somebody
usually backs down and it is over. This is the beginning of the use of power. It is not about violence. It is
about the display of one's power to survive on one's own. After all, this is individual.
The 34 and the 27 are the only gates of the sacral center that are pointed at a functional awareness. As we
go through the lines of the 34, -)lease understand that there are so many different variations of this. The
34 connected to the 20 is always displaying heir power. This is part of their doing. The 34 connected to
the 10 has a totally different process because it has to do with the empowerment of their identity. The 34
and the 57 is another process.
So again, we are looking at the basis of this as energies, but how it actually works out in someone's chart
is dependent on what is the nature of their integration system and how is this working in that
configuration, not simply what it is in the gate itself because again, there are so many different qualities at
work. When the 34 is connected to the 57, the power is aware. An aware bully is very different from an
unaware bully. The awareness about what it takes to survive. "I know what it takes to survive," is
different from the blind need to survive. Please understand that you have to take into consideration the
way it operates in the actual design.
34.2 Momentum
When you come to the second line, they project outwards. The first line is not what you think. The first
line is not the obvious bully. Like all first lines, they can be hidden bullies and if you scratch them the
wrong way, you will see a display of power. The second line is always projecting out this power. "I have
the power to survive." In the black book, this is all about victory. It is not about winning anything. It is
about "I can do it. I can survive. I can be my archetype. I can follow my convictions. I can do what I want
to do." I mentioned all the other gates in that statement.
Momentum. Mars exalted. The ability when victory is in sight not to lose perspective. Venus in detriment.
A tendency to be emotionally carried away by the smell of victory. "My power is bringing me to the
capacity to survive. I want to use more power." Because momentum is a projected field, these people can
really crumble. They look enormously powerful because they project out all this power, when underneath
they are very insecure and very frightened. They need to know that the victory is there, otherwise they fall
apart.
The power that grows when victory is insight; or The power for growth limited by impatience. This is the
negative side. The whole process of being a second line is that you don't really know what is there and
you have to deal with the consequences of your actions all the time because you cite going to be found
out. What people say about the 34.2 is, "Their bark is worse than their bite." They bark a lot but they don't
always bite.
34.3 Machismo
We saw that the first line knows that it has power and that it may have to use its power to protect itself to
survive. Ve know that the second line projects out this power and can be found to be weak inside, a paper
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tiger. When you get to the third line you get to Machismo. You get to the real display of power.
Remember something about the nature of the third line: it is the adaptive line. It is preparing the ground
for the transpersonal process. It knows that there is something else at work. Because it is trial and error, it
will make mistakes in its display of power.
The indiscriminate display of power. Saturn exalted. The great malefic, where machismo unfortunately is
invariably backed up by natural and uncontrived power. In the white book: The display of power that
defines any role. Understand what that is all about. The third line is saying, "I cannot be a surviving
human being unless power display is part of my role. " These people will look for ways in which they can
display their power in life to enhance their survival success. In other words, "I will not succeed as a
businessman unless I am really powerful and display my power." "I will not succeed as a lover until I beat
up my woman." This is the need to display power in any role to guarantee the survival of their way and
their conviction. There is a great deal of violence that can come out of this line because it is about trial
and error. There is a lot of battering that goes on. Children, couples. It is the display of power and, unless
the mistakes become part of an awareness process, every role gets imbued with this.
Mercury in detriment. A reasoned and calculated display. The communication of disinformation. "I will
cut your throat unless you pay your bill." That is not necessarily true, but it frightens. The person that is
saying that to you is using that power in their role because they will not be able to feed themselves unless
they get that bill back and they have no way of asking nicely. They have to display their power. It may
not be true. They may not come and cut your throat but ... pay them, will you?
It is so easy to take that description and say. "Terriblel" It is not true. There are certain roles that require
that kind of display of power. Nothing can be done about that. That is the nature of being human after all.
When push becomes shove, you'd better be ready. This is a competitive field. We are here to survive and
there are all kinds of competition for survival in the world, on all kinds of levels and the reality is that
certain roles need to have this power. Otherwise, you can never get to the sixth line, its resonance, and
recognize what common sense is in terms of what power is really for. Trial and error is a learning process.
34.4 Triumph
When you get to the upper trigram, you get to the line of externalization. There is no question anymore
that the power is there and they know it. They know that they have to put that power out across the
channel. In this case, there are three channels. It is putting its power out in a very strong way. This line is
called Triumph. The freedom in absolute victory to unlimited use of power. Victory in this is being left
alone. Victory is being allowed to survive out of your own power and not being interfered with, not being
conditioned away from your individual responsibility for survival.
In the white book: The inherent confidence to use power subtly. These people are fixed in showing their
power. They show less power the less they are interfered with. If you do not get in their way, you think
that they are very nice. If you get in their way, they are nasty. If you do not get in their way, they get more
and more confident as they grow older and these are the kind of people that have a great reservoir of
power but they do not use it in an uncomfortable way. It is subtle; they know how to manage it.
If that confidence is broken, and most of the time that happens already early in childhood, the moment
that there is interference, you get this abuse of power. Then they are pushing harder and harder with their
power, in order to be able to get that triumph they know is inherently their right. This is also a gate that
can lead to all kinds of problems. Violence is something that can also be there in the detriment of the
fourth line. There is always the potential for abuse because people refuse to get out of the way. These are
people that are pushed out of the way, finally, in that display of power.
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Ego gratification in the unrestrained use of power with impunity, inevitably leading to abuse. This is very
important, for example, in children coming into the world. We have a whole generation that has been born
with this Pluto transit. We have a whole generation of children that carry each of these lines, millions of
them in the world now. They will come into their maturity in the new century. It is very important to be
clear about that if you have a fourth line child in your life; you have to encourage their confidence by
allowing them to express their individual process. If you do not encourage that confidence, you will have
a child that will have all kinds of problems.
By the way, the abuse in this can be brought out by a parent as a mirror. The parent says, "No, we do not
do it your way," and they beat the child. You get the whole thing reflected back on the child. It is very
important to keep in mind whenever you are looking at long term transits, that every day and every
moment, there are thousands and thousands of children coming into the world with that configuration.
This knowledge is very important for raising these chile ren so that we have a generation of children who
have great power (Pluto in 34) with the capacity to work this out ause they have not had negative, better
unaware, conditioning in their process.
34.5 Annihilation
f line is the nature of the hexagram and the fifth line is the way the world looks at it. Everybody projects
onto thos who carry the 34.5 that they have power. Due to that, they are rarely interfered with. The line
says Annihilation. The way in which we see that power at its universal level is that it eliminates
everything. For some people, that is a frightening term. The total annihilation of resistance. It comes out
of the projection. I have the 57.5 and I have three parts of the integration but I do not have the 34. When I
was in public school, there was a bunch of guys beating up weaker guys, a typical male trip, but they
never bothered me. I did not have to do anything. I did not have to put on any scene. The fifth line always
gets a projection. These people are being projected on as having so much power that you would not want
to interfere with them because you will get burnt. Like the second line, it can be a paper tiger. Nobody is
really sure because they are projecting onto that power.
The resistance to release power other than when necessary. Because the power is already projected on
them, they do not have to let it out all the time, only when there is interference. This is the kind of person
where, once they use their power, it enhances their power reputation a thousand times. By the way, if they
blow it, they really lose.
The discomfort with the need to always release power. This is something that becomes very difficult for
the fifth line. This sense of "No matter how powerful I am, no matter how much they project on me that I
have the power, there will always be some force that will take it away from me by interfering with me."
You see that, for example, in the paranoia of dictatorships. Everybody is projecting on the dictator that he
has all of this power, but at the same time there can be a coup d'etat going on underneath. They are aware
of that and there is a part of them that says, "All right, I have to keep on maintaining the power," and they
get tired of being in control all the time, of having to control other people to keep them from interfering
with them.
34.6 Common sense
When you get to sixth line, you get to the end of the whole process. If you look at the 20.6, you have the
line of Wisdom. If you look at the 10.6, you have the line of the Role Model. If you look at the 57.6, you
have Utilization, all of which talks about the fact there is much more involved in this life than just the
release of power. These people learn it very early. Like all sixth lines, they are looking to the whole
circuitry, and individuality is enormously complex.
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Common sense. Knowing when enough is enough. Earth exalted. The good sense when having bitten off
more than one can chew to spit part of it out. The classic story: You have somebody who gets in your way
and you are a power person. You want them out of your way and you push them out of your way; you
punish them in some way. But it does not stop. They still come back. They are still determined to get in
your way. There is this sense of: "How many times do I have to hit them? How often do I have to put
them in their place?" You take on this responsibility. You bite into this responsibility of maintaining your
power so that you can survive, and then you discover, "Oh".
One of my dogs went out and killed some chickens from my neighbor so I put my dog on a chain for
about six hours. She was in deep psychic pain about that treatment. Then I realized what I was doing and I
took her off the chain. My neighbor came back soon afterwards to tell me that my dog was wandering
around. "If you do not like it, shoot her. I will not continue to use this power because that is not what it is
all about. There must be another way."
The restriction of the release of power when one does not have the strength to maintain it. Why keep on
dealing with all of this? Very often 34.6 people just withdraw. They pull their power away and they
simply say, "Enough is enough. I do not want to be like this. I do not just want to be able to survive by
using my power in relationship to others because I know there is much more." You can thank the stars
that we have a sixth line and its resonance in the third line. This is what people call the beginning of our
idealism, the beginning of the understanding that we are more than jysf pn animal. There is something
else than just maintaining our survival. There has to be.
The lack of restrictions that can sap one's strength. The moment this kind of person constantly gets
involved in this display of power, they just fall apart. They get very depressed. It is not what they want.
They see that power is essential but not that it has to be constantly used against somebody else.
Somehow, there has to be a way, (the example, the Role Model/, in which that power can be used in a
healthy fashion. It is not enough that it is there. There has to be much more. It goes to the 9.1, which is
also in the sacral center. As we go around this wheel, we will see how all of these things are deeply
related to each other.
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HEXAGRAM 35 PROGRESS
The 35th gate is the gate of life. Out of that gate we have the human experiential way. Rather than having
a gate that is opened up to a non-motor splenic system (the 16), we have a gate that opens up to the solar
plex system and its incredible wave and power.
The 35th gate is not interested in finding out where the energy is. The energy is always going to be there
at one level or another. They are always going to meet it whether it is defined or not because that energy
is only one step away. The 35th gate is a primary gate of action. Due to that, there is very little restriction
on it.
The 16 and the 35 and their respective channels, are about talent. Logical talent is about repetition and the
development of mastery. Abstract talent comes through experience. You play 25 different instruments in
your life because you can never stay with any of them because your life is full of change and instability.
But at the end of your career, somebody comes to you and says: "What kind of musical instrument do you
think I should play?" The experiential person has a background, has a talent from experience, to be able to
give advice.
The 35th gate is also a gate that is deeply creative, but it is not creative in the sense of repetition and not
in the sense of being collective in the need for energy. It is creative in its experiential possibilities.
Above the lines, it says: By design, progress cannot exist in a vacuum and is dependant on interaction. All
change is dependent on getting access to the solar plex energy, but progress is the nature of this gate. In
other words, this is the great changing gate. It does not say, "I experiment," it says, "I feel," and usually,
"I feel like a change." This 'usually' is the conditioning factor. If they do not repeat, they stay healthy.
They go through the'experience, but'diily once. You make love in a canoe. You don't have to do that
twice. You do it once, you get the experience and you always know what it is like to make love in a
canoe. Don't do it a second time because you may drown. If you survive the first time, hold on to the
experience; put it away in your memory and go on to another kind of experience.
35.1 Humility
The first line, the foundation, is saying Humility. The ability to accept rejection. This is the core of the
change process, of the feeling process: the ability to accept rejection.
In this acceptance of rejection, you have Venus exalted. The artist that accepts rejection as part of the
process. You have the word 'artist' here. At the foundation of the experiential way of life is a deep
recognition that the experiential path is an artistic path. In other words, to live is also an art. How you live
is an art. How you experience and how you move through experience, is an art. This is a collective
process and, as such, it goes up and down on the emotional wave and so there always will be this
dilemma.
The Neptunian side is: A self destructive reaction to rejection. Loss of worth. In the white book:
Acceptance of change and rejection as part of the process. This is an ongoing process. Change comes and
you have to go through a process where the crisis is initiated and, in that crisis, you have to let go of what
you were doing and go on to the next thing. There are those that are rejected. There is yourself who can
be rejected because you can bring out that very stimulus in other people.
On the other side, you have Change and rejection as humiliation. In the artistic sense of the word, what
this is really saying is that, like the 16.6, what it is looking for is how is the logic going to feel in life
itself? "I want to be able to feel it. It is not enough just to know what the mathematics of the skill is. I
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want to be able to feel it. I want art and life to be one." Art and life to be one is a deep drive in these
people. Of course, there is no way in which the abstract creative person can develop unless they go
through all kinds of change and crisis. Otherwise, they will never have enough experience collected in
their process, which means that they have to accept rejection and change until finally what they feel and
how they feel carries with it creative power.
35.2 Creative block
When we come to the second line, we come to projection. We saw with the 16.2 that what is projected
outwards is this Cynicism. When you come over here to the abstract process, what it projects out is
boredom. This is the great line of boredom. You have to recognize about the nature of this gate, what it
represents, is that 'progress cannot exist in a vacuum'. So, the vacuum is always there and that means that
change and that movement through the experiential way is dependent on getting access to the solar plex
wave. There is always this sense of vacuum the moment that the wave is not there because there is no
possibility to be able to manifest.
This line of boredom is called Creative block. Lack of inspiration which stops progress. Venus exalted.
Attunement with the vagaries of the muse and the recognition that creativity is energy that ebbs and
flows. The Moon in detriment. The need to take action, however mundane, to overcome the feeling of
emptiness. The actions being uninspired do not further progress. These are people that get bored. They do
not accept that they have to wait for the energy to come to them. They won't know that until they are in
the resonance to the fifth line, which always knows because it gets projected on. It is the paper tiger. In
not being able to accept that they have to wait is this sense of boredom, of being locked away from having
any progression. And on the other side, because of the boredom, the moment that any kind of energy is
available, they jump to fill up the empty space and it does not make them feel good. These people get into
a lot of unfortunate collective problems because they jump simply because they have been waiting to
jump. The moment they get the energy, they go.
Creativity and the muse will always come and go. It is easy to say that to 35.2's. It does not mean that
they are going to accept it, like all information.
The other side of that is: The need for change and the fear of stasis. This gate is all about change, after all.
There is this deep need for change and there is this fear that, if the energy is not there, they can't do
anything and that life is horrible. These people can really suffer from this creative block and, because of
that, they can get into a lot of trouble.
35.3 Collaboration
If you want to have a wild and incredible crisis, lots of chaos, enormous turmoil and jump around all over
the place psychically, than hang out with a 35.3 because that is what you will get. Because it is the end of
the lower trigram process, it is not yet transpersonal and yet, it is a gate of adaptation. What is built into
this is Collaboration. This is the blind openness to the emotional wave.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Very beautiful, very nice, this is a wonderful line. Jupiter
exalted. Benefic encouragement of others that expands personal as well as communal progress. That
sounds very nice. It is true. They will give anybody with a defined emotion access to their Throat. It does
not matter, what it is. They will eventually learn, of course. When they get older, if they survive, they'll
know not to do that so much. But nonetheless, this is something that they can only learn from experience
through trial and error. So they go through a lot of messy stuff when they are young.
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On the other side of this, Sun in detriment. The need to be the center that ignores the importance of
others. "I have to have the experience. I need to have this crisis. I need to check this out. I don't care what
your problem is in it. I have to go through this process." This line is fixed on the change process. One of
the things to recognize for these people, for anybody that has the feeling stream that goes from the 41 to
the 35, is that change is natural. Without change, they can't be healthy. Without crisis, they can't move on
to the next thing. Their crisis is always a question of inexperience. It is all about getting experience. This
third line runs into all kinds of experiences.
The ability to bring progressive change into others' lives. By the way, they do because they bring wild
crises. Because they bring the depth of crisis, whoever gets that crisis really does learn something and
there is a progress. That is not about bad or good. They can be very exciting people to be around. I don't
know if you want them in your bedroom every night but they are very exciting people.
On the other side we have: The need to be the center for progress. They are the ones that are manifesting
out of the throat. They are the ones that need to be the center of that process, but all of this is simply about
them blindly being open to the change and feeling process. To manifest this energy makes them feel
good. They make a lot of mistakes along their way.
35.4 Hunger
The third and the fourth lines have a lot of similarities but there is a major difference between them: the
third line is always open to the solar plex center and always open to the experience but, of course, because
it does not really understand the other side, it makes a lot of mistakes since it is not always connected to
the right kind of energy to fulfill that experience properly. When you get to the fourth line,
externalization, you get to the capacity to recognize what is on the other side. It is a transpersonal line. It
is called Hunger.
The whole fixing and direction of this energy is: The insatiable appetite for progress. These people
constantly need change. Not only that, but they constantly generate the change mechanism because they
know exactly who carries the emotional energy on the other side. These people can be deep manipulators
of others in the sense that they recognize who are the emotional people and who they can take that energy
from and bring it through so that they can get the experience they need.
Moon exalted. Less severe. Symbolized by the phases of the Moon, the drive may be obsessive when the
Moon is full, but like the fading of the Moon, the obsession abates. The Moon describes the emotional
wave. What this is really saying is: it takes a lifetime. There is no short route. Mastery in the logic sense
takes a lifetime to reward. Mastery in the abstract sense, experiential mastery, takes a lifetime of
experiences before there is a depth to that experience so that you can share the value of it with others.
They are people that control the change mechanism and, because of that, they can take advantage of
emotional people because they can use their energy to manifest the crisis and change that they need.
Because of that, they can be very unfair to those people. Remember that the collective process is not
personal. A lot of people get hurt here. This is a channel that is deeply sexual. A lot of people get hurt
here because somebody wants to make love to a redhead and the redhead thinks it is because they love
them, but it is simply an experience. It is just collective and it does not really matter. The person that is
sitting there with the 35 is just orchestrating that "I feel like" and can take advantage of that person that
has the energy and then be very cold to them afterwards because the collective experience is over.
In the white book: Change for change's sake. The drive lessens with age; or The drive for progress that
will ultimately step on toes and lead to recriminations. These people will ultimately run into crisis
themselves because they will have people in their lives who will often feel abused by them. Of course, in
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those kinds of situations, they will get the emotional crisis and, depending on where the wave is, how
bright and burning that crisis will be.
35.5 Altruism
The fifth line always tells you how the world projects onto the gate. The world projects onto this gate as a
gate of experience. The 36th gate is the gate of inexperience and the 35 is the gate of experience. So,
everybody who is looking at the 35th gate and projecting onto it says, "They have the experience. Maybe
they will share that experience with me, so I can also get it." So it is the 35.5 that is getting this projected
onto them all the time. They are the ones that have the experience: we project that onto them and then
they come and hook into it.
It is called Altruism. The sacr!Rce of personal for communal progress. These are people that have all the
pressure coming from the outside to bring this outlet of experience to them. Again, like all fifth lines,
when they are young, all this pressure is being put on them to be the outlet while they themselves do not
necessarily know the depth yet of what they are themselves.
Mercury exalted. The principles of interaction and harmony communicated successfully for the benefit of
the whole. This is their role in life, to open up the way for experience to others. By the way, because it is
a fifth line and because it is all projected on them, they can be quite hesitant later in life to provide that.
You can get a taste of that hesitancy in the detriment underneath, which says: Though altruistic and
cooperative in general, a personal regret that in interaction a greater personal expansion has been lost.
This is very much like the 16.5. "Yes, I can do this for all the others but I am only giving them the
experience I already have. What about the new experiences that I need?"
One of the things that are very boring for this fifth line (remember that the second line, the resonance
below, is the line of boredom) is that they have all these people that keep on coming to them for that one
experience they have had, locking them into repeating that very experience for the others when they
themselves are looking for a new kind of experience. This can be very frustrating for them. The 35th gate
is always under enormous pressure because it is under the pressure of the solar plex system. So often, for
example, people with the fifth line are being projected on when they are young and they may not have the
experience in whatever that thing is at all. Because it is being projected on them and because they are
connected to the wave, they take on that role of guiding the experience. They can have quite a crisis in all
that. That is part of the process of these gates pointed at the solar plex. They are always open to this
unpredictable and very powerful motor.
35.6 Rectification
When you get to the sixth line, this line is very clear. When you go from the 35.6 to the very next
hexagram you will get to the 45, which is the only possessive gate that exists. It is the only pure
possessive gate that manifests. It is a voice that says, "I have," or "I don't have," and the 35.6, when it gets
to the end of that process, says, "What is the point of just another experience? What do I have from that
experience?" So, here we find an aspect in which the only thing that is important is, "Is that experience
going to have a corrective value in it, that by doing this experience, or going through it, I really do get
something other than the experience itself?"
The 35 is a gate of expectation and the 16 is a gate of identification. The 35 is always saying, "If I do this
and that, I am going to get that. When you get to the sixth line, it says "I have done this and that, but I did
not get anything except this and that." The sixth line is saying, "What can I get from that experience?
What do I have from that experience? Is it really going to be worthwhile? What am I actually getting out
of that experience?"
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Rectification. The energy to correct. Saturn exalted. The process of crystallization coupled with ambition
that assures timely and effective correction. In the white book: Progressive change that results from
correction. They will only get into that change if they see that this is a corrective process. I know so many
abstract people for whom, after going through all their crises, the only new experience that they were
interested in is a guru or a therapist so that they can go through a new experience that could be corrective
for them. By the way, that is not saying that it was, but nonetheless, it is the kind of thing that the 35.6 is
looking for. "I want an experience that is of value to me, so that, at the end of that experience, I have
really learned something that is going to add to the quality of my life."
Mars in detriment. A destructive tendency that in its personal application may be the necessary severity to
ensure correction, but when applied generally will meet with resistance and tend to reinforce rather than
rectify situations. "No, I am not just going to do that with you. Sorry, I am not interested in doing that
because I want to do something that will give me something at the end, rather than just having a good
time. " It is not about whether it will feel okay to do the experience. What is it going to deliver?
Correction which brings change through severity and even destruction, and will always meet resistance.
These people can be very heavy because what they are saying is, "Yeah, but if we will work with this
energy, we will do something that is deep. We will do something important, something that is really
going to change us. We will do something that will really bring a reward." This is a very difficult thing.
One of the things to recognize about this sixth line is that they need to know what they have and what
they don't have. Otherwise, they will have no peace. An example for the heaviness of this kind of
emotional correction is in therapy, when you have somebody that is screaming in your face in order to get
you into a different state.
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HEXAGRAM 36 DARKENING OF THE LIGHT
We come to the Darkening of the Light, to the 36th hexagram. We come to the beginning of our look at
possibility gates. This is the possibility to release the emotional energy, the emotional wave. The 36th
hexagram is by far the most powerful wave-releaser that we have. It has a direct access to the throat: the
channel of Transitoriness, the design of a Jack of all trades, the design of the experiential way, the design
of gaining experience.
This is all about the experiential path and this hexagram is enormously powerful in that. When people see
that it is the gate of crisis, the thing to recognize is the nature of this gate and why there is crisis there.
This is gate of inexperience. It has been initiated by the 41st hexagram, which initiates the fantasy, the
beginning of a possible new experience. It finally gets into the solar plex system in the 30 and there, it
becomes a feeling and a yearning to be able to fulfill the nature of that feeling. When it gets to the 36, that
feeling is fully conceptualized in the emotional sense of the word. What is there is the readiness, the
depth, if you will. It is the mirror of the 48 (to attempt the experience and the deep frustration) and it is
dependent on the presence of the 35 to release it, which puts the 35 under enormous pressure.
This is the human way. Because it is the gate of inexperience, what happens is that, regardless of what the
experience is going to be, there is always a point of crisis, maybe a tiny crisis, maybe a huge crisis, but
inexperience always leads to that. You can't help but make mistakes when you have never tried something
before. You have to be very lucky to avoid that. In that sense, this is the nature of crisis here.
The awareness and power to generate a feeling or not: this is the energy to generate a feeling, to generate
it outwards to drive an experience. In sexual terms, this is the gate of sexual penetration. This is the gate
where you have to do it. By the time you get to the 36, you have to do it, whatever the experience is. You
have all this energy built up in you so that you are prepared for it at any given moment. The change can
be so sudden, in that sense.
This awareness possibility is the hunger wave of hope and pain. Here, the frustration is very powerful. I
must penetrate this experience. I must have this experience. This is the energy that is there and, of course,
when you are hopeful it is like "Yes, I get it." When you are full of pain it is, "Why can't I get it?" and the
frustration that comes with that. What usually happens is that what you can't get from one source, you
usually give to somebody else. It is not personal after all. This is the classic story of someone who is full
of desire and they go looking for their lover and their lover is not home, and they find another one in the
bar. This is strictly impersonal. This is simply about living out the experience. If there is nobody there for
that experience, there will be someone else. That is why crisis is so common in this. It is not personal; it
just pops out all the time.
Keep in mind that the 36 is exactly opposite the 6, which generates the motor, and the 36 is its mirror.
Nothing generates a wave like the 36. It is quite an expressive thing to see it in motion.
36.1 Resistance
When you come to the first line, you come to the foundation and the line of introspection. More than
anything else, all first lines, if you look at them, are very clear about describing the intrinsic nature of the
gate.
Above the lines it says: The rule of cycles in which decline is a natural but not enduring stage. 'Decline,'
in this sense, is the limitation of the inexperience. After all, these people are of enormous value to us. On
the logical side, we see that we cannot have solutions without experimentation. Here, we cannot make
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sense out of life unless we've had enough experience. It is all about getting the experience. It is
impersonal and sometimes it can be very painful, but it is part of our human way.
The first line is called Resistance. Mars exalted. The energy and determination to persevere in the face of
opposition. The 'opposition' is the limitation. They are looking for the 35. Jupiter in detriment. An over-
principled resistance that rather than being selective in resistance and thus less at risk, will maintain
normal patterns and incur opposition.
In the Book of Letters, you can see how it moves both sides. On one side you have: The emotional power
to handle crisis. The 36th gate is about that. These people always handle their crisis. It is the other that has
problems with the crisis. They both have a crisis, but the 36th gate cruises through it and the other person
has a shattering experience. It is very good for them. By the way, it is an ancient end-of-the -wheel gate. It
carries a lot of wisdom in that experience. So, every time you get shattered in crisis, there is something to
be learned. There is a new birth that can take place.
By the very nature of the hexagram, they are equipped to handle the crisis, but on the other side: A
resistance to change that will always bring crisis. On the other side, they realize how much that crisis
causes havoc. The people with the 36th gate that are part of my life are so aware of how much crisis they
have brought. They know that. There is a part of them that says, "I really did not have to do this thing
because I am sure that it will lead to problems. Better I leave this." You can't do that until you have
reached your midlife point. There are only few exceptions. After all, the 35/36 is a mirror of the 16/48,
and they are both about talent and talent takes time. In the logical process, it takes repetition and depth,
and in the abstract process, it takes a great deal of experience and fortitude to survive the crises and keep
on going on in the experiential way. Slowly in their lives, they begin to recognize that not only do they go
through crisis, but they can generate a great deal of crisis. Later in life, they become much more selective.
This is the maturing process that is built into this hexagram.
Remember that it is the last hexagram in the wheel before you come to the 25, the alpha and the omega. It
is both Pisces and Aries. So, the 36 is completing a process. Without going through crisis and without
getting to the experience, we do not get to the next experience. We do not start again in the wheel, being
innocent. The 36.6 will lead to the 25.1, to the beginning of an initiating process, to the innocence, to the
start of a new cycle. It is a very important energy. It simply means that there are wounded ones along the
way.
36.2 Support
When you come to the second line, you come to the line of projection. These people can be quite
something. They are not introspective. They can come up to you and out of the blue they say the most
outrageous things. "I think that you need a good love affair." They are really quite accurate in all that. It is
very uncomfortable to have them explode on you in their wave.
Support. Assistance to others in times of decline. They really are. This is not to be misunderstood. They
are of enormous value but they do cause havoc. They just project out that quality exactly at the moment
where you really do need it. They can generate a terrible crisis in that moment. They are very good in
bringing out crisis in other people, which is quite healing.
Neptune exalted. The application of imagination to schemes which benefit others. In the Book of Letters,
it says: Feelings that can benefit others in times of crisis. Otherwise, they are a pain in the neck. In times
of crisis, they are perfect. They will get it out of you. You will go through that experience and you will
get it. They know that you need the experience. Even if you don't, they know. That is the whole thing to
understand about this gate. The nature of this gate can be seen in the Espionage line. They have a sense
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of, "Aha, they need it." Here in the second line, this is the beginning of this power, to recognize the
moment to bring that force into somebody's life. By the way, at the same time, they get their experience.
They are great in initiating that crisis so that they can get the experience. "I knew that they needed it." It is
not personal, but it can be deeply beneficial. This is the nature of crisis. The whole abstract process is
about beginnings and middles and ends, and crisis is just the path along the way.
When you get to the other side, Moon in detriment. The more practical and individual assistance but only
when unavoidable and not as a general principal. That is, Selective assistance in times of crisis. They
don't always do it. They don't always get you at that moment. Sometimes that is very cruel and brings its
own crisis. Crisis is necessary for us to develop our experience and the moment we stop seeing crisis as
something that is bad instead of seeing it as something exciting, it is all about making life exciting. I have
a lot of 35/36 people in my life. They are hilarious. They need that excitement. They have to have it. For
them, a crisis is great. They crank it up to a higher level and everybody is blowing up around them and
they are fine afterwards. They tell others "You all needed that. You deserved it. If I did not tell you,
somebody else would. "
36.3 Transition
The third line, the upper part of the lower trigram, is a line of adaptation. It is called Transition. It says:
The point at which decline has exhausted its power. These people are very different from the second line
people who can generate the crisis exactly in the moment and the crisis really is for the other person. By
the time you get to the third line, you are interested in the recognition that you have to deal with what is
on the other side of the channel. What happens to 36.3 people is that they always get the big crisis. The
others get a little crisis and they get the big one.
In the second line, it is the other way around. The third line people have to deal with the phenomena of
the change that takes place. There are the ones who really meet the change, which affects them more
deeply than it affects the other. Remember that this channel is social in its very nature, like all collective
channels. Therefore, this is a social enterprise of sharing. In that sharing, they are the ones that have
difficulties with the change that takes place.
Pluto exalted. The ability to establish a new order out of the ashes of the old. That means that the change
deeply affects them. What they thought they were, what they thought that they felt, they get the crisis
because, suddenly, they realize that in the adaptation to the other, something totally different has
happened to them in their experience. Out of that, they have a whole new process to go through.
Jupiter in detriment. The tendency in renewal to try to assimilate the remains of the old order into the new
with the risk that it may rise against the new order once it has regained its strength. These people did not
really want that change, they only wanted the experience and they got something else with it. When you
make love to someone and they get pregnant, you did not want all that. You just wanted the experience
and, all of a sudden, they have to deal with it and they end up with the crisis. This is something to keep in
mind about the nature of the third line.
Here in the Book of Letters: The emotional depth to endure crisis and embrace change. The change will
always come for these people. They are forced to adapt.
The embrace of the change but with feelings that won't let go of the past. Resisting the nature of the
change. You can hear these people say, "I wish I hadn't done that. Why did they make me do it?"
36.4 Espionage
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We come to the fourth line and we begin the process of the upper trigram. The fourth line is about
externalization which has a narrow field to it. It is fixed; it has this one-pointedness about its nature. The
moment that you get into the upper trigram, you get into the social context. After all, we have a collective
circuit here which is social by its very nature. Its keynote is to share and, by the time you get to the upper
trigram, what you are looking towards is the other side. The fourth line is about mastering the nature of
the other. This line is deeply perceptive of the other. They are interested in getting their change and in
fulfilling their experience and their one-pointedness is that they can only do that by knowing the other.
That knowing of the other can be beneficial or detrimental. It depends on the perspective, whether you are
the spy or you are the victim of the spy. You notice, by the way, that the third, fourth and fifth lines have
Pluto exalted.
This line is called Espionage. The ability to prepare for and anticipate decline through the accumulation
of secret or privileged information. I have met so many people that have an astrological background who
are deeply interested in the patterns of others, working out exactly what they are.
In the Book of Letters: The realization that knowledge, both covert and esoteric, is necessary if one is to
be prepared for crisis and change. What happens to these people is that their crisis is that they are always
busy looking at others and not seeing themselves. They get their crisis when they have to see their own
mirror, but they have a real gift of looking into the other.
Here, you find the Moon in detriment. The tendency in recognizing the strength of the opposition to
accept the inevitability of decline and rather than resist, to offer one's services to guarantee survival. The
double agent. This is where their gift pays off in blackmail or in fees. Crisis knowledge that is available to
others for a price. That price can be money or a piece of flesh. It depends on the circumstances. The one-
pointedness of the line is that this is all about knowing the other. Anybody that comes to me with this
line, the first thing that I tell them is, "You'd better learn about other people, to understand how they
operate. While you are doing that, don't forget to learn about yourself. You'll save yourself an enormous
crisis that way."
36.5 The Underground
Fifth line, universalization. \% get to the sum total of the nature of this. It is called The Underground.
Pluto exalted. Perfected survival regardless of conditions. These people will get their experience, and they
will survive it. That does not mean anything about others. They are here to get their experience. When
they are really of value for others is when they have been through enough experiences.
Immunity to crisis as both generator and survivor. In other words, no matter what their situation is, they
can always move from inexperience to experience and always will, and damn the consequences. They are
out there to get their experience. This is nature of what this hexagram is about.
When you get to the other side, Mercury in detriment. A nervousness that can lead to self-betrayal. They
can get very nervous because they know that the crisis is coming. They can feel it coming and sometimes
they can let it go without getting their opportunity to go through it because what they want is the
experience at the other end. By the way, these people end up being either fascinating or deeply boring. If
they do not have an interesting life, what they tell you over and over again will drive you crazy.
Self-betraying nervousness in times of crisis. They know when the crisis is coming, they want to
participate in the crisis and, when sometimes the excitement is too much for them, they let it out. When
they do so, my advice to these people is, "Don't take a contraband across borders." That is a metaphor for
many things. These people are probably the most honest people who create crisis. Sometimes, their
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honesty gets them into trouble. They are the kind of people that will confess to someone and get
themselves into trouble and have a crisis. They are inherently honest in that.
36.6 Justice
Now we get to the sixth line, the line of transition, the top of the house. The 36.6 is looking towards the
25.1. That is the next hexagram, the next line. The 25.1 is about selfless and motiveless action. All of this
is deeply manipulative. This is depth, after all; we are looking at the mirror of the 48. It is an emotional
depth and understanding of the other operating in the wave but it is still an emotional grasp of the other
and, because of that, there is so much built into the crisis that looks like it is manipulative.
What they are looking for, in the end, is action that is without motive. "I don't have to do this to get that."
The 35/36 is the channel of expectations. If I do this and this, I will get that. Then you'get to that and you
realize, "Shit, I have to start again," and on and on. This is an ongoing process. Expectation leads to
frustration. These people can get deeply disturbed by the fact that life does not reward you that way. You
have to get out of the expectation business.
This line is called Justice ('just is'). The inevitable survival of right. Change is the only thing that endures.
The 32nd hexagram tells us that. To go from inexperience to experience is the human way. This is
correct. Sixth lines are always looking for something else. This is looking far beyond the nature of the
experience. It is looking for what, in essence, all of this is bringing out in terms of the other side. What
does the experience or the change lead to?
Sixth lines can be depressive. These people have seen it all before and they are the ones that are least
likely to jump at experiences. Like the 59.6, the One Night Stand, they can end up being celibate because
they do not get the opportunity to see something that is transcendent, transitional for them. The next gate,
the 25.1, is a spiritual gate. It is a mystical potential. This is where universal love starts. So they are
looking for something far beyond that.
Jupiter exalted. The knowledge and attendant faith that the powers of darkness eventually destroy
themselves. 'Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.' Saturn in detriment. A profound
sorrow and cynicism that is not diminished by the understanding that darkness is self, annihilating.
'Darkness' is ignorance. Madness looms as long as there is ignorance. Ignorance is the great darkness.
Human beings need to experience to make sense of what it is to be. We need the evidence. Not everything
can be evidenced through the formula of the logic process. We need human experience. We need to know
what it is like to have to go through and do things.
In the Book of Letters: The correctness of crisis when it arises out of pure feelings. As long as the feelings
are not pure, they will avoid the crisis. 36.6 people are not the kind of people that you associate with
crisis. When they do have them, they are huge. They are not crisis people because they are not turned on
by any old experience. There is always this sense of "What else is there?"
In the detriment: The sorrow or cynicism that comes with seeing that despite the correctness of the
feelings, there is always crisis. The deepest crisis is that the crisis goes nowhere, that the wheel keeps on
turning, that the expectation is never fulfilled. Deep inside, they know that. What they are saying is,
"What is the sense of just going through this again? Why can't there be something different?"
One of the great jokes that you will notice in the lines through the circuits, particularly in the collective, is
that all the sixth lines in the logic want to be abstract and all the sixth lines of the abstract want to be
logical. The logic has this tendency to say in the end, "Does this make sense?" and the abstract has the
tendency to say, "Is it really true? Is it a fact?" It is where they meet. The collective process is inside of
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us. We need all of those elements together. This sixth line can get very depressed due to its very nature: to
be able to go through change to evolve, to continue this human process.
They are the people that are the strongest believers and the strongest desirers of the world coming to an
end. They stand up and say, "I hope it will all come to an end." I know a number of people who have that
line and when Jupiter was struck by the comet Shoemaker Levy, they had this big grin on their faces.
"Oh, I hope it will come to an end."
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HEXAGRAM 37 THE FAMILY
We come to The Family and we move into the tribal process. In coming to the 37th hexagram, we come
to channel of Community, this deeply social channel, a design of a part seeking the whole. This stream is
about sensitivity. It is about touch. The 37th gate is the gate of friendship and family, the gate of
affection, the gate of touching and hugging-at a price because, in the tribe, there is always a bargain.
Here, we have the possibility of who will or who will not provide what is needed. This is the energy, in
the wave, the potential to recognize who will provide and who won't. That is why I said that there is
always a price. The 37 needs the power of the ego and it is always looking for it. The possibility here is
the sense of touch, and the mouth.
I have the 40. I have met a lot of 37's in my life. They love to hug and kiss me. This is their nature. The
40 is the stomach and the mouth is at the other end. The mouth is always saying, "Your stomach is always
full, fill mine." The deepest relationship between the 37 and the 40 has to do with resources, as this whole
stream has to do with resources.
37.1 The Mother/Father
Please remember about the 55.6, the line in the 55 that will awaken to the spirit, its next step is to the
37.1. That is the transition this line is looking for. The first thing about mutation in the individual, in
terms of the spirit, is that the first place it has to go is directly into the tribe, into the line of the
Mother/Father as a mutation into the family, into the tribe itself.
A position of inherent respect that ensures a focus for the development of guidelines. Venus exalted.
Harmony is the key to the successful maintenance of relationships. It is only through harmony that the
beauty and the values of the family can endure. Look, this is a foundation line. There is no polarity. It is
very straight forward. This is what the family is all about.
In the Book of Letters: Friendship that is rooted in sensitivity and ensures harmony. It has to be rooted in
the sensitivity to the legitimate bargain, in the touch. I make fun of the bargain but, please understand that
it is natural. The thing is that it has to be a clean bargain. All clean bargains are of value. The whole thing
with the beginning of this process is to recognize that the first thing that the spirit mutation will do is that
it has to go to the mother and father and it has to be instilled as a value within the family as a guideline.
This will be its step.
What friendship is all about is that everything having to do with friendship has to do with sensitivity.
Sensitivity is a word that simply says resources. The selfishness in the 55.6 leads to the family and the
resources.
37.2 Responsibility
When you get to the second line, you get to projection. In getting to the second line, the projection is
Responsibility. This is the ashram line. It has Jupiter exalted. The understanding of the principle of
individual responsibility as the foundation for successful cooperation. That is, "We all do it, but
everybody does their thing." Whenever people have this line, I always tell them, "You can't be in
relationships or friendships in which other people are dependent on you because you will always end up
being the other side of this line, which is telling them what they should do: to be responsible."
Mercury in detriment. A tendency to point out the responsibility of others. This is a natural ashram line.
You have all these people in an ashram that are responsible for themselves in the cooperation and you
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have somebody who is on the other side of this line always telling them where they should be responsible.
You have both sides at the same time.
The heading above the lines says: The manifestation, macro- and micro-cosmically, of the organic nature
of communities. This projection is not about family at all. It is about being in the family. It is not about
being of the family. It is about projecting into the family. This is projection and it does not have the
introspection to recognize the true guidelines or values, or the nature of the family. It simply knows that it
has to belong somewhere in order to get its resources.
37.3 Evenhandedness
When you get to the third line, the end of the lower trigram, you get to line of adaptation, to the line of
bonds being made and broken, to the wave of allegiance and rejection. So we know that in that sense
there will be an irresponsibility in relationship to the nature of the family.
It is called Evenhandedness. The success of any group is dependant on maintaining order. Jupiter exalted.
The ability to judge what behavior is appropriate and to react in a balanced manner to transgressions.
'What behavior is appropriate' is the behavior that will bring the resources that are necessary. Always
remember that. So, this is the attempt to adapt in order to make sure that one can get the resources that are
necessary.
Mars in detriment. An ironic tendency to either test incessantly the borders of acceptability or to respond
to the very same tendency in others with severity. All of this is about trying to adapt to a situation in order
to get to the resources. The rules can be changed in that, remember, bonds made and broken. This is the
one where everybody has to behave in a certain way and then all of a sudden the situation changes and
everybody has to behave differently. We have to change the way the family works because the conditions
have changed. This can be very destabilizing.
In the Book of Letters we have: The possibility to have the sensitivity to know what behavior is
appropriate in a relationship. In order to get the resources: don't forget to add that. It is very important to
keep that in mind. It is not simply about behavior. This is not Grace. This is not behavior to set up a
situation where mutation can take place. This is behavior that is designed to get a return. It is looking for
resources.
The other side: The possible lack of sensitivity to what behavior is appropriate. These are people that will
change their behavior simply because it is a way for them to get access to resources that they wouldn't get
behaving the way they did before. They can feel very insensitive to those people that were there with
them while they were in that behavioral mode. These people can end up being the kind of people that
other people will complain about. They are always changing or breaking the rules, or they punish you
because you broke the rules, the very rules that they break. Remember that the 37 is going up and down in
the hope and pain wave. Add that to everything that we are saying.
37.4 Leadership by example
We get to the upper trigram and we get to the externalization, to the one-track. We get to Leadership by
example. Any member of the family may take on a leading role through exemplary behavior. 'Exemplary
behavior' is getting the resources. This is so important to understand. The community cannot survive
without the resources. The 37, which recognizes the principles that is has received from the 19/49
process, knows that it is its responsibility to attract the ego force that will fulfill those resources. Any
member of the family can take on this leadership role if they can figure out how to get the resources.
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Moon exalted. The manifestation of highest principles in everyday and practical affairs. The higher
principles are making sure that the family is looked after. This is not selfish, please understand that. It is
for the nature of the family. It is selfish in the 55.6, when it is individual. When it gets to the 37.1, this is
for the family. This is making sure that there is enough for the children to eat; there is enough money to
build a school.
Saturn in detriment. A conservatism that generally only accepts the leadership of the father who may or
may not be a valued role model. 'The father', in that sense, can be the father in the patriarchy and the
mother in the matriarchy. It makes no difference. It is only about accepting the way to get material and
the resources based on a traditional archetype.
In the Book of Letters: The possibility of the highest principles in all relationships resulting in a
leadership role. The moment that you can provide for your family, you take on a leadership role. There
are so many families in which the traditional bread winner, the father, is replaced by a child that is
successful. It is normal in that sense that they take on the leadership role because they have the power.
The power for the family is where the resources are.
The possibility of being insensitive to the leadership of anyone other than those accepted by tradition.
"You can bring more money into the house than the father does, but I will still honor my father instead of
you. He will tell me what the guidelines are." Remember, at the foundation of the family are the
guidelines. So, these families come into conflict. The conflict arises between the one that has traditional
leadership and the one that actually has the pocket book. It is a lot of tension in families. I am not just
talking about blood families. I am talking about any kind of community, any kind of relationship that you
have with friends. The situation is: who actually has the role and who actually has the power? The power
is in the resources.
37.5 Love
This universalization line has such a lovely name. It is called Love. Natural and unaffected devotion to
the family. Always remember that fifth lines are about seduction. This is the great seduction of
community, family and affection, which is love. This is a nice seduction, isn't it?
Venus exalted. Natural harmony and perfected sharing. Mars in detriment. Emotional dependency that
often turns love into hatred. This is an interesting line. When you look at the Book of Letters, you have
the Venusian aspect which says: Natural harmony and sharing possible through friendship. This is what
has to be universalized in the family. What is being offered in this 'harmony and sharing' is the non-
revealed wave that is underneath. This harmony and sharing goes from hope to pain and back again. That
is not part of the billing. The billing is, "I am your friend. I am affectionate with you. We will have
harmony together. Can I seduce you with that?" And the other side is saying, "Seduce me with that." Then
the wave comes along. It will create all kinds of dilemmas.
The other side is: The possibility of dependency turning love into hate. This is very important. It is milder
for the person who has it than for the one who doesn't. This is all about the emotions. We can never
escape the fact that we have the solar plex center here. These people are offering their love and their
harmony for what the ego will deliver on the other side. If they become dependent on that ego, if they
keep on offering this perfect affection in order to get their bread and butter, they will quickly develop a
hate for that ego at the other end. Even more so: these people that carry this line make other people
emotionally dependent on them. By doing so, they create the potential for hatred in the other person
because most of those people are undefined emotionally and are being yanked up and down on that
emotional wave.
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In all this talk of the sweetness of love, you also have to recognize that the family always has its love but
it is never something that stays at one place. It is always going up and down in the wave. We all know
this in our families and communities. This breeds all kind of dependencies and it says that this is the
universalized methodology. This is: "Get them dependent on the emotional wave". Out of this can come
hatred. Hitler had this line in an undefined emotional center.
37.6 Purpose
The 37.6 carries a unique significance. There are six waves of spirituality, the six mystical waves. This is
a movement that goes from the 19 to the 49, from the 37 to the 40, from the 51 to the 25, and from the 20
to the 10, the three mystical channels bridged by the 40/37. At the mystical level, the 37 is looking for a
family that is far beyond the mundane. At the mystical level, it is looking for God. This is a gate that
yearns for something very profound. One of the extraordinary things about the 37.6 is that it leads to the
63.1. It leads to After Completion; the 63.1 is about the spiral of life.
The 37.6 is saying, "What is it all about? Who am I? Where do I belong? Is there something greater that
this?" After all, it is the part that is seeking to be one with the whole. But the whole is more than the
family, the group, the nation and the planet. The whole can be transcendent.
In the 37.6, there is this deep need for God, whatever one wants to call it. Spirituality. To be moved.
Within the 37, there is this burning question: what is the purpose? What is the purpose of all this work?
What is the purpose of constantly having to look for the resources? What is the purpose of maintaining all
this? Is there something greater than all of this? This 37.6 is not just looking for the 40 at the other end. It
is far beyond that. It is far beyond the community. It is looking beyond all of that because all of that is
just business, and it knows that. There must be something else than just building temples. There must be
something beyond all of this material. There must be something beyond just having to feed ourselves. It
has to be more than just killing to replenish. It comes out of the 19/49. It knows. There has to be
something that raises us up out of the nature around us.
This perception of 'What is it for?' is the deepest question within the 37.6. Yearning for that. It is not
looking to go up to the 21 /45. It is hoping to be able to go the other way so that it can be awakened
through initiation, so that it can come to recognize the holiness of its nature, not simply to work in this
plane. 70% of all women on earth spend 50% of their time looking for firewood and water, nowl Think of
that. What is it about? The nature of the family, in the end, is this yearning for an explanation so that they
can see that this trivia in this life is somehow substantiated, that it makes sense. 'Micro- and macrocosm.'
This line is called Purpose. The energy to maintain the family is enhanced by recognizing its values. What
is it really all about?
Venus exalted. The gift of not only recognizing the inner meaning of the family but an appreciation for its
values. Mercury in detriment. A need for diversity that may ignore the achievements of the family in
favor of withdrawal. These are the ones that leave the tribe and go looking for God. They are the ones that
go on the road and forget about all that stuff. I guess India is the best place to see them, to see the ones
that have left their home, that have taken the road to God, whatever they think it may be.
In the Book of Letters: The possibility of extending friendship through the appreciation of its value. But
again, for these people, the greatest friendships are the ones that guide them to some kind of spiritual
sustenance in their life. There are not just looking for food. They are looking for manna.
On the other side we have: The need for diversity that despite appreciation will prefer casual friendships.
"We will not get involved with all that. We will be looking for something else, something much deeper."
One of the most important things for me in the nature of my work is that human beings have an
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opportunity to recognize that there is a purpose. Their purpose is a unique one. Every human being carries
a unique purpose. I have mentioned that I am working on a project that will describe how we all
incarnate, logically and precisely, so that every human being can see the intrinsic value of their being.
Until the family can grasp that, we are not going to have any peace. Everybody needs to know that their
purpose is fulfilled by being.
We can only suspend the judgment that compares our lives to this and that when we see intrinsically that
we are limited and in that limitation is our perfection. All of us together transcend all of that. In the end,
the deepest cry of the family is 'what, why and how?' They need to know that. That is very difficult for
them because they are in the wave. The real awakening of the human family will not happen until spirit
awareness begins to flow on this planet. The foundation of that is to take people through their nature.
My joy in being able to teach at that level is to bring people an opportunity to see how deeply
programmed we are. We have no choice. There is nothing you can do about that except see its beauty. It
is not 'no chance.' It is a beautiful process the moment that you can surrender to the nature of what it is to
be you.
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HEXAGRAM 38 OPPOSITION
We come to the individual process: the 38th hexagram, Opposition, the polarity of the 39th hexagram,
Obstruction. These gates are deeply similar in the nature of their pressure. At the same time, they are
pointed towards different outlets. The 38th gate is pointed towards the splenic system and this channel,
the 28/38, has to do with the development of our intuitive processes. The 38th gate is the gate of the
fighter and the fuel is the energy to struggle or not. This is the inherent energy.
I always try to stress to the people that carry the 38th energy that the only struggle that is worthwhile is
the struggle that tells you that life is of value because that is inherently what the struggle is all about, that
life is truly of value. That is why you have risk-taking at the other end.
The energy mechanic is the impulse coming out of the format of the 3/60 to ignore. There is nothing more
exquisite than a 38 ignoring you. They ignore you; they do not hear you. You talk to them and 10 minutes
later, they look at you and say, "Were you talking to me?" They are in their own process. This is a fuel or
a pressure -energy of the individual process.
Above the lines it says: The ability to preserve individual integrity trough opposition to detrimental
forces. 'Individual integrity.' It is about the value of the individual life, not the value of the collective or
the communal, tribal life. It is the value of the individual life. If you scratch any seeker, they will all ask
you the same question, "What is my purpose in life?" At the core, to be individual is this need to
recognize value in your own life.
38.1 Qualification
The first line always acts as a guide to the essential meaning of the hexagram. This foundation line is
called Qualification. There is something very beautiful in this. This is a fuel, a pressure -energy, which is
speaking for the whole hexagram and you can see that, right from the beginning, the intuitive process
carries something that we call psychic phenomena.
Tempering opposition based on circumstances. Don't always strugglel Don't always fightl The line is
saying to only struggle and fight for those things that are of value. Otherwise, don't bother.
Neptune exalted. Nine times in the 384 lines we find a first line, a foundation that has Neptune as its
exaltation. The foundation of what you fight for is veiled. The very basis of this hexagram is hidden. It is
hidden in the mysteriousness of mutation and the mutative capacity of anything individual. What is of
value to fight for can be an enormous mystery in life. Most people don't know.
A psychic attunement that guarantees proper action. 'Proper action' in the sense of what to struggle for or
not, when to struggle or not, when to listen or not.
In the white book: The psychic gift of knowing when and how to fight. Which means, with Neptune here,
it is just there. That is where it gets its psychic label because it appears mysteriously from behind the veil
and suddenly, in a noxious situation, where nothing is going on, the 38.1 finds itself engaged and
struggling. They don't know why because it is a psychic moment. It is coming from behind the veil.
Mars in detriment. The tendency to oppose as a general rule. This is also the nature of what is inherent in
Opposition. The drive to fight as a general rule. "Get out of my way. I am doing it my way." The
individual is not designed to be influenced. This is one of the most important things to understand about
the nature of individuality.
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Wherever you see an individual gate in your design, recognize that that is an aspect of your nature that is
not to be influenced by others. That is why, at the core of what the pressure is, it is to be intuitively
penetrating and aware in the now through the 57/20. But at the root of that, it is to fight anybody that gets
in your way, right, wrong, or indifferent. The key is: is it really of value for you to fight about that? As a
first line, this is the true struggle. What is worth fighting for is the great question of the 38. 1.
38.2 Politeness
The second line has a very deceptive name; very few people really grasp it. All second lines are about
projecting outwards but they do not have the depth. This is not a question of what the struggle is or what
one has to struggle about. This is just a projection outwards that one is a struggler and that one is a
fighter.
This projection outwards comes under this title of Politeness. Don't misunderstand this. This does not
mean that these people do not struggle. It just means that they struggle all the time and it is polite. "Please
stop doing that. I don't want you to do that anymore. Please." They can drive you crazy with their
politeness.
Opposition that does not transgress normal codes of behavior. Pluto exalted. The value of discretion. In
the white book it says: The energy for the intuitive awareness for discretion. These people try to keep the
struggle from getting out of hand. They don't want the big fight. They just very carefully coach everything
in nice polite terms and you know right away that they are struggling with you, but they are polite, so they
survive.
Think about what is at the other end. In the 28th gate, we have the fear of death. I know so many 28's and
38's who have been beaten and robbed in their life. They bring struggle into the world and they get it
back. The 38.2 knows that and so, they struggle on politely. This is the framework that will lead to the
universalization in the fifth line: they struggle politely.
Moon in detriment. An over-politeness that is both servile and obviously superficial and defeats its very
purpose. These people kill you with their politeness. "Oh, yes I will do this for you." They can drive you
crazy with the way in which they express it.
The energy for over-politeness in times of struggle. The fear of dying, the fear of being beaten, destroyed,
and broken is very powerful in this gate. If you are a fighter, you know what the fight is. The fight is to
the death. This lies underneath every 38: the recognition that the fight is to the death. The struggle is to
the death.
38.3 Alliance
The third line is a joke. The moment that you understand what third lines are about (bonds made and
broken, trial and error), the idea that this line is called Alliance is very funny because you know that
inherent in these alliances is the fact that they will fall apart. They will fall apart because the individual
ultimately struggles alone. This is the whole thing.
In the end, by the time you get into the integration system, the one thing that is clear is that everyone is
alone. Individuals know this intensely. That is why it is so important for them to recognize in their
lifetime what their individual value is. They know that they are alone and they ask themselves: Is it worth
it?
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Sun exalted. The ability to sustain through integration with similar forces, thus ensuring the vitality to
persevere. Please understand what that means. "I am struggling against that person in the neighborhood
and I will struggle with that person for the rest of my life on my own. If it happens that my next door
neighbor is also struggling with that person, I will go along with my next door neighbor and we will
struggle together." That is never really an alliance. It is the alliance in the way in which the English and
the French army will fight together, but they only do so if they have a common enemy. When they do not
have one, they will fight each other because that is the nature of the individual.
In the white book: The energy to integrate with others in times of struggle, as long as it is the same
struggle, as long as it is focused on the same thing or pointed towards the same thing.
We have the Earth in detriment. Here you see one of these Sun/Earth polarities. These lines are important.
Earth in detriment. Selfish alliance which saps the energy of one's partners in order to ensure personal
vitality. "I am struggling with my neighbor and my neighbor is struggling with my neighbor. I will let my
neighbor do most of the struggling so I can save my energy. When my neighbor burns out, then I will
jump in the right moment and finish it off." This is the third line.
38.4 Investigation
When you get to the fourth and fifth lines, you get to the inherently social lines. Nothing about the
individual is inherently social. At the top of the lines, it says: The ability to preserve individual integrity
through opposition to detrimental forces. The 'detrimental force' is anyone who tries to influence the
individual. So, when you look at the inherent sociability of the fourth and fifth lines, please understand
that that is only going to come from an appropriate individual. It will have to come from another
individual, in essence from the 28th gate at the other end. In other words, individuals do not influence
each other. They empower each other or not, but they do not influence each other. They empower each
other to live out their own individuality and, in that, as long as they are empowering each other, a trust
can develop between the two of them.
This is the line of Investigation: the single-mindedness, the focus of the individual to struggle for what is
of value in life. Analysis which strengthens opposition. Pluto exalted. The detective who develops or the
insider who accepts a joint opposition whose success can only be based on trust. In the white book: The
energy to recognize who can be of value in times of struggle.
The 38 is a pressure and the pressure needs to be released. Its natural pathway obviously leads to the 28.
When a 38 and a 28 have an electro-magnetic connection to each other, in that moment, it is possible to
align with each other. It is possible to trust and struggle together out of empowerment for each other. That
"who" is the very important element. Who is that person that you can trust to not influence but empower
you? This is the key in the fourth line.
Mars in detriment. The power of adrenaline to provoke aggressiveness. In the black book: The
aggressiveness in opposition that prejudices investigation and limits trustworthiness. The thing to
recognize about this line is that these are some of the most aggressive individuals that we have in terms of
maintaining their individual integrity. The slightest attempt to influence them will get the strongest
possible reaction because that is what they are here for. Because of that, even another individual can bring
out an aggressive reaction in 38.4's. We are complex beings. They may meet a 28 who is basically
collective but they have the 28 to their 38. That basic collective part is not going to empower, but to
share. It wants to make judgments. It wants to correct. It wants to say, "No, let us not do it this way. Let
us do it that way. " In that instant, you get violence as a potential because the aggressiveness will say, "No,
no, my way. "
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What you have here in the fourth line is a very fixed energy on being able to establish if life is worthwhile
or not, a genetic possibility to recognize who can empower you to fulfill that recognition. Because of the
strength of this, there is also the possibility that nobody will have it. There is this constant aggressive
defense against being influenced by the outside. My son has the fourth line twice with Neptune. The way
in which that comes out is very bizarre. Telling him that he should do something does not work. He just
does not listen. He looks like saying, "Who the hell are you to tell me anything?" I was sitting in a cafe
and he was about to go across the street and as he left I said to him, "Be careful." Before he gets to the
crossing, he turns around and says, "I know what I am doing." He is only five years old. These are 38's.
Don't get in their way.
38.5 Alienation
We will see when we look at the 39.5 as the polarity on the other side, because it is projected on these
people that they are provocative, that they are basically left alone. The same thing is true when you come
to this fifth line with its appropriate name Alienation. Remember that the fifth line is how the public or
the outside world sees a hexagram. So, the outside world sees the 38 as an alienated being, somebody
who is fighting in their own world, somebody who is really not connected to the rest because they seem to
be caught up in some kind of struggle about something. This energy is seen as alienating energy by the
outside.
A stage in opposition where one is totally isolated. This is the universalization of the pressure to be
individually intuitive. It is absolutely perfect. The individual is always at their best when they are isolated
within the aloneness of their own being because they have to resolve everything in life within their own
context. They are individual.
Saturn exalted. The ambition and concentration to endure. These are very tough folks. You project on
them that they can fight and they are there. They are always ready for the struggle. It gets projected on
them all the time, so they are deeply trained in life for what the struggle can be.
The energy to stubbornly fight alone. This is their magic, in that sense. Their magic is that they do not
need to have others with them in their struggle because, in fact, their struggle can be of value to others.
They are often groundbreakers because they are given the opportunity to struggle for what is really of
value. They often get to be the people that first discover the value of something because they are given the
opportunity to struggle.
Pluto in detriment. Alienation experienced as painful confinement that by its very nature blinds one to the
possibility that there are those at some point who may come to one's aid. In the white book: The energy
for stubbornness is so strong that it is difficult to recognize that there are others who can help in times of
struggle. It is about alienation. Even in its detriment, where there is always this possibility that there may
be somebody else (after all, there is the 28th gate at the other side), there is still this sense that one is
always alone. The difference is what all individuals have to live out in their process. They have to go
through the binary of what aloneness is. This binary of aloneness for the individual is that half of the time
it is delicious and half of the time it is not. This is what lies in alienation.
The exalted says, "It is great to fight alone. I only have to deal with my resources, my process, with what
is of value to me. I don't have to concern myself with anybody else." The other side says, "I have to fight
alone. Isn't this awful? Nobody will help me. Nobody cares about my struggle. Nobody empowers me."
They always have this feeling that they have to do it alone. It is true. You have to do it alone. Somebody
can help you to get to the door but you have to go through the door yourself. The 38 is always going to
need that doorway of the 28. It cannot be fulfilled by itself. The 38 is only a pressure.
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Remember that how the lines manifest is entirely dependent on the design. Again, you cannot take any of
the meanings of these lines and project on them until you see them directly in context to the design. How
they will come out and how they actually operate, that will make the difference. If you have the 38.5 and
you have no outlet for it, you will feel alienated within yourself because it is so difficult to bring it out.
Again, all of these lines have to be seen in the context of the design.
38.6 Misunderstanding
Each of these gates that come out the root center and point towards the splenic center have very unusual,
Uranian lines. We will see the 58.1, the Love of life. We will see the 54.4 which is the mystical line of
Enlightenment/Endarkenment, and here we come to the 38.6. This unusual line is the quality that exists in
this individual process. The 38.6 has a direct resonance to the 20.6 that is going from the fuel to the
expression. The expression in the 20.6, in the throat, is Wisdom, wisdom in the now that is of value to
society and to civilization. The 38.6 is one of the most potentially mutative of all gates in the individual
process. The only lines that are intrinsically more mutative are the lines that you will find in the 3rd
hexagram. In other words, what you are seeing here in this particular line is a mutative force. It is a
mutative force and, because mutation will always bring something new, that mutative force is always
misunderstood.
It is so difficult for individuals, even when they have the opportunity at the mental level, to explain
themselves. When you are dealing with a fuel, with a pressure in the 38.6, there is this fundamental
knowing of what is worth struggling for or, as is more often the case, what not to struggle for. There is
always this misunderstanding from the outside because it does not seem to fit into any kind of recognized
pattern from the past.
Opposition without basis. Saturn exalted. Eventual crystallization that clears up misunderstandings.
Eventual'!
In the white book, it says: Energy which attracts misunderstanding and the stubbornness to face
opposition. These people know something that other people don't know. They still don't know what it
means and they don't know how to express it. It is just something inside. They can seem like they are
fighting for something and nobody can understand why they are fighting and what they are fighting about
and they themselves often have no idea why they are struggling and fighting. That is the nature of the
38.6. But there is always eventual crystallization. In other words, because it is a mutative process,
eventually the mutation can take hold and, in that moment that the mutation gets to manifest, gets
expressed or generated, in that moment, it is possible to recognize what the struggle has been for. Then all
those people around them that were struggling with them will let go and the struggle will end.
When you come to the Earth in detriment, you have: The recognition that misunderstanding is at the root
of opposition, but the insistence that it is the misunderstanding of the opposing forces. The detriment is
more mutative than the exalted. It will actually struggle for something and it does not know why it is
struggling for it for all of its life, despite what anybody tries to tell them, because so deep is that force
inside that the mutation of knowing is the only way that they will find value. 38.6 people are often
tormented by the fact that the knowing of others is never a knowing that is sufficient for them because the
value of life for them lies in a knowing that no one seems to have access to and only they seem to have a
recognition of, inside of themselves, but do not know what it is. The 38.6 does not fight. They do not
engage in struggle. Their struggle is all held within because nobody understands them.
There is a very clear description of this in the keynote. The keynote does not belong to individuality.
Misunderstanding. The 38.6 is the bane of the collective. They drive the collective crazy. The collective
can deal with individual knowing that has been around for a while but they have a lot of problems with
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individual knowing that is brand new and cannot be explained to them. So, they are up against the wall of
struggle that they cannot deal with.
Again, recognize what the nature of a sixth line is. This line is looking for the quality of the whole circuit.
In other words, not only is the knowing finally there that gives value to the life; it also leads to the
awareness that gives life its proper form, its proper convictions and brings it out awake in the now to
mutate all of society. No wonder that they are misunderstood. How difficult a process that is. For all sixth
lines in individual gates, it is much more difficult to make any kind of commitment than it is for a
collective sixth line. A tribal sixth line can be pulled in relatively quickly. The collective takes a little bit
longer, but to bring in the individual sixth line to get a commitment out of these peoplel It has to come out
of their unique knowing.
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HEXAGRAM 39 OBSTRUCTION
We move to the 39th gate and we come to the individual process. Whenever we are dealing with the
stream of Emoting, whenever we are dealing with this individual stream that operates through the solar
plex system, we know that this is the stream in which we are going to have the metamorphosis or the
mutation taking place that will open up the potential to release the spirit consciousness that lies within the
solar plex system. We know that the event itself is keyed to the 55th hexagram, to the sixth line. Keep in
mind that the 55.6 is a potential which operates correctly when it is being fueled by the 39th gate. The
39th gate, as a fuel, is going to make its contribution to this metamorphosis that is going to take place in
our emotional process.
The 39th gate is the gate of Obstruction, and it is the gate of provocation. It is the energy to provoke or
not. In sexual terms, this theme is about teasing. This energy provokes in order to find the right spirit.
This is one of the gates that could be best understood through the negative.
That is, provocation is there to find out who can not be provoked. If you try to provoke somebody and
they are not provoked, that spirit is correct for you. If you can provoke somebody, that spirit is not correct
for you. The provocation tries to find the right potential for that fuel to feed, to find the right spirit. All of
that can be very confusing because the 55 is in the wave. What appears to be the right spirit on Monday
will not be the right spirit on Tuesday. In the archetype of how this gate functions, the provocation is
there to find the right spirit because, once linked to the correct spirit, there is the potential to emote, the
potential to bring out the individual spirit and the capacity to bring mutation to manifestation, to bring it
to everything else.
The individual is responsible for mutation in the plan. This is inherent in their design. You also have to
see that there is no metamorphosis of the emotional system other than through the individual process. The
individual can only have impact on the tribe or the collective when it is truly in the right spirit, what most
people confuse with the term 'enlightenment.' Most people confuse this pathway with this term. The
individual mutative force that is in the right mood, this spirit is infectious because it is there to move the
mutation through the totality. The energy mechanic is the impulse which is rooted in the 3/60, in the
pulsing energy to eat. It is about what you eat.
One of my favorite statements for 39's is when somebody comes into your life, imagine if you have to eat
with them. Would you really like to eat with them? 39's know that better than anybody else. Adults never
really get that, but if you ask children about the people around them, "Who do you want to eat with?" this
is very revealing because they tell you spontaneously.
If you look at this stream and you look at the 12th gate which says caution and meditation in the face of
temptation, you see that the 12th gate manifests the individual process in the throat. It is the gate of
caution. It is important to withstand the temptation to do. It is better to meditate and back away from
acting. In the 39, we find the fuel for this process.
The heading above the lines says: The value of obstruction in provoking analysis, assessment and
reevaluation. It is the very fuel for that caution. That is what provoking is all about. Provoking is a deeply
selective process. It is a very important process. What is so difficult for people who carry this energy is
that, because they automatically are provocative, and given the nature of the world, they get so many
people who are provoked by them. Because they are not the right spirit (not everybody is the right spirit),
these people end up disliking the very value, the very essence of what they are. All of these themes can be
seen in the first line in the foundation.
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What is successful in provocation once, in terms of the spirit, may not be the next time due to the
emotional wave on the other side. The 39 people themselves have to recognize why they are provoking.
The 39 is a fuel, and it is not aware. So, they realize that they provoke naturally, and if they accept that,
what they are only looking for is for the response of people who are not provoked by them (what I call the
right spirit). In other words, if you have a certain kind of habit, like if you like to tap your feet while you
are eating and you have somebody sitting beside you, and every time you are tapping your feet, the other
person starts going "Ahem." This means that you are provoking them; thus they do not have the right
spirit. Don't eat with them. If somebody else is there and doesn't mind your tapping, then you have found
the right spirit. Period. It is not sophisticated. It is simply the recognition that those aspects of your nature
are provocative to some. Only the people to whom it is not provocative are for you. To provoke
"efficiently" comes back to your own recognition.
If you carry the 39 energy within you, you have to recognize that people who are not provoked by you, in
whatever situation, are right for you in that moment, in that time. They carry the right spirit. They may
not next time because this energy is directed to the emotional field, to the wave. So, it may work one
moment and may not work the next. What you do discover over time is who is generally always provoked
and who is generally not always provoked by you. Then you have succeeded.
The whole success for a 39 is to keep on provoking. In order to be yourself, you have to be provocative
with the recognition why the provocation is there so that you are not uncomfortable when people do not
like your trip. The worst thing for any individual is somebody who says, "I don't like the way you are
doing that. Change it." This is very difficult for provocative people because they will always have people
around telling them, "Don't provoke me." This is like telling the sun not to shine. They 39's are what they
are and that is their beauty.
So many gates have ways of deeply knowing what is correct for them. It is in their genetics. The gift of
the 39 is to provoke. Otherwise, we do not have a way to get enough people together who are carrying a
good spirit. The good spirit comes from acceptance, like in The Troubleshooter; the wisdom of a 39
saying, "That is where the problem is," this being a provocation. If you are a problem-solver and you have
people in your life who accept your advice, that is the right spirit for you. If they don't accept your advice,
they are not the right spirit for you. The Martian people in the 39 try to insist that others respect their
advice. The key to 39 is to continuously provoke. I continue to shock people. It is my design. You have to
continue to be what you are. It is just the recognition of the value of these things. Of all people that I
know, 39's are the most uncomfortable with the nature of their energy because they do not like the
negative results of their provocation. Too bad; this is the only way to learn.
39.1 Disengagement
It is called Disengagement. The basis of provocation is to back away. This is one of the deepest
provocations of all. Think about what that means, genetically. The moment that the 39 disengages, there
is no mutation.
Mars exalted. The determination when confronted by obstacles to withdraw, but only temporarily.
Understand the nature of the foundation. It is looking inward. It is trying to understand what provocation
is and, the moment that it provokes, the moment that it is dealing with its capacity to provoke, it always
ends up in situations where that leads to a reaction and they withdraw, but only temporarily. In other
words, they will go through it again and again.
The energy to provoke by refusing to confront obstacles. The obstacle is the resulting provocation in the
other. Think about that. When you are provoking somebody, you tease them. What you are teasing is that
you need to get exactly the right potential for that teasing. Not everybody will respond in the same way.
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Those people who will be provoked by that teasing are not for you, but you have to find who is for you.
Thus, you keep on provoking and every time you meet the obstacle, their response to that provocation,
you back away and try to find another one.
You are looking for the spirit. Understand that the 39th gate is a gate that has deep inside of it the only
instrument that is out there to look for the spirit. When these human beings stop provoking, we have less
and less people who are looking for the spirit. For every 39, there is a resonance in the world. The spirit
can be found but it is a research, after all.
Mercury in detriment. Disengagement, with an accompanying indecision as to when to re engage. There
is a good sound biological reason why the foundation for this gate which is seeking to find the spirit for
mutation, is being held back in this disengagement, because we do not want all kinds of mutations in the
world. Just because something is a mutation, it will not inherently guarantee that it is a good mutation. It
can be a bad one. A bad mutation is when the 39 provokes someone and they try to stay instead of
withdrawing when this person gets provoked. Thus, you will have a negative mutation right away and it
will manifest in the quality of that relationship because it then is contentious, caught in the mood swing
and the spirit is not there, but only the motor. This is a way of holding back from too many mutations.
The value of this kind of education is when people who carry the energy of the 39 begin to recognize the
value of what that gate is. In order to do so, they all have to develop what I call a thick skin. If you
provoke somebody and they get provoked, you know that they are not for you. They will put up an energy
vibration that is sent towards you which says, "This person is a provoker and this person is not nice," or
other gossip told. If people talk about the 39 behind their back or into their face, they do not necessarily
like that.
This is the whole thing about being a 39. That is why there are so few people in the world that are truly
looking for the spirit. Most of them are engaged in disengagement. They are pulling back. They provoke,
they get the reaction and then pull away. This is what most of the planet is doing with this energy.
39.2 Confrontation
The second line is always projecting outwards. The 39.2 is projecting outwards that they are provocative
and therefore, other people can treat them accordingly and respond, even when they are not provocative.
What happens to these people is that, because everybody responds to that provocation, they end up having
to deal with it a lot.
The second line is called Confrontation. That is what they get. By the way, you can notice that the second,
the fourth and the sixth line have the Moon exalted. One of the easiest ways of thinking of the Moon is to
recognize that it is what moves and drives us. When the Moon is exalted, this is a very powerful force
because we get a constant cycle every 28 days of the Moon coming back to this line and reinforcing this,
or when it is at the other side of the definition.
Here, The instinctual and direct assault of obstacles. These people are projected on that they are
provocative. You are sitting with somebody who is describing to you what the ABC is. The 39.2 is sitting
there and does not say a single word, does not stare, does not look funny, does not make any motions,
does not do anything, and the person who just described the ABC turns to the 39.2 and says, "What is the
matter with that?" The 39.2 inside is saying, "What me?" and starts stuttering some excuse. What is
necessary is the direct assault on the obstacle: "Nothing. I was not paying any attention to you." They get
this presumption all the time, this projection that they are ready to be provocative.
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In the white book: The energy to provoke through direct assault. These are people that have to deliver this
direct assault. They have people coming right at them and say, "Why are you looking at me so strange?"
"I am not looking at you at all." This answer is just as provocative in response. They give the direct
assault back.
Jupiter in detriment. The principle of preservation that tempts one to go around an obstacle that should be
tackled headon. In the white book: An emotional discomfort when direct assault is essential. Think about
what happens to these people. They are so used to being picked on because that is how they feel. They
feel like they are being picked on. "Why do you pick on me? I did not say anything. I did not look at you
funny. I did not do anything. Leave me alone." The people with the Jupiter in detriment get the direct
assault and they do everything in their power to get away from that provocation. They do not go right
back and say, "You idiot. Why do you look at me?" They try to say, "Really, no, no. Did I look like that?
I did not mean to. I am really sorry that you thought that I thought that you are funny." These people get
very angry. The other person will find that answer just as provocative as the direct assault. The 39 never
gets outside of the game.
39.3 Responsibility
We come to the completion of the lower trigram, to the trial and error process, to the learning process.
This is the resonance to the sixth line and the potential of wisdom. The third line is called Responsibility
and here you begin to see the root of what will ultimately be, in the 39.6, the fuel for the 55.6, which will
lead to the mutation.
This is the trial and error process of learning to get to this point, and the first thing that we see in this is:
The avoidance of confronting obstacles if failure puts others at risk. This 'others at risk' sounds strange
because we are dealing with an individual fuel in an individual channel and circuit. Yet, built into it is a
genetic recognition of the power of mutation to change everything, either positively or negatively.
We have Jupiter in detriment. The great benefic whose first consideration is for the larger framework. In
the white book: The energy to provoke through self-sacrifice. For example, you have a teacher who is
bullying the children in the classroom, provoking them, and you have one child who carries this 39.3
energy who will make the sacrifice in order to protect the others. They will go up to that teacher and
challenge him. This child will get into trouble, will have to leave the school, will be punished. If this child
will not make this self-sacrifice, others will be at risk.
The responsibility in the third line is this early recognition of the responsibility of being a mutative force.
That responsibility is not simply for the individual. Sometimes the provocation has to be for the benefit of
others. These are the people in any kind of group situation that do the provoking for others. They,
themselves, might well prefer not to get involved because trial and error means mistakes and punishment.
But because nobody can, they do, because is built in.
The Earth in detriment. The often disastrous assumption that others are more at risk if an obstacle is not
confronted. The white book: The energy to provoke through the failure to make sacrifices. They do not
make the sacrifice and provoke others through that behavior. In the same situation in the classroom, the
capacity to provoke on behalf of everyone, but not doing it. This is extremely individual.
The third line is starting the process of seeing that the individual mutation always has to be ready for
sacrifice, always. The moment that you have a mutative force in the world, there are forces that want to
destroy it. All individuals, as freaks, are subject to being stoned and, the moment that one is ready to
make a mutative provocation for the benefit of others, it becomes the focus of that field of energy.
Sacrifice is built into bringing mutation. There is no mutation without sacrifice.
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39.4 Temperance
We come to the fourth line, to the beginning of the upper trigram. It is about being unidirectional; it is
about being fixed and one -minded. This fourth line is one of the great lines of the 384 lines. It is such a
complex line. Even the language of this line, its keynotes come from everywhere.
The fourth line is called Temperance. It sounds very much like the introduction to the 12th hexagram.
Careful evaluation and assessment before taking action. Before provoking. The nature of the gate is not
about doing; it is about provoking.
Moon exalted. The values of feelings and instincts in establishing the proper timing. Feelings have
nothing to do with this stream. Instincts have nothing to do with this stream, either. Timing has nothing to
do with this stream. We have already looked at the abstract, the tribal and the collective in that one
sentence. Three keynotes from three different fields is a very complex energy.
The values of feelings and instincts in establishing the proper timing. This means: when to provoke.
Understand the beauty of this line. This line is the first time that we can go across the channel. It has the
recognition that there is something else on the other side of the channel. The moment that it recognizes
the forces on the other side, it says, "Oh. There is a big emotional motor over there and it is going up and
down in a wave. If I don't choose the right time, I will never get the right spirit."
In terms of the white book: The energy to provoke at exactly the right time. This is the magic and the
fixation of the fourth line: when is the right time? Because of that, they externalize at different times until
they learn. These are the kind of people that only provoke you on Mondays or when you tell them that
you have a headache. They find out at what time to provoke you to get a maximum impact, to see whether
or not you have the right spirit.
The other side of this energy has the Sun in detriment. The faulty belief that willpower alone can
overcome any obstacle regardless of circumstances. 'Willpower': this keynote belongs to the tribal
circuitry. You see that this energy is very complex. You have all kinds of keynotes coming from the
whole body graph. This whole field is the fuel for mutation. It is not the fuel to initiate mutation. It is not
the 3/60. It is the fuel to bring that mutation out into the world and allow it to spread. It is very powerful
in that sense.
In the white book: The energy to provoke that ignores circumstances. This energy does not wait for the
right time. These people end up being a pain in the neck because they are always provoking you at the
wrong time. If it is the right time to provoke somebody when they have a headache, do not provoke them
when they do not have one because you will get crushed. You keep on persisting to provoke them
whenever you feel like it, instead of recognizing that there is a right time for that.
39.5 Single-mindedness
The fifth line is always being projected upon, so anybody that carries this fifth line is projected on as
being provocative. Due to that projection, they do not have to provoke very much because people get out
of their way, unless they are really looking for a fight. So, people avoid getting involved at any kind of
difficult level with the 39.5 people.
This line is called Single-mindedness. The rare ability not to overcome but to bypass obstacles. There is
no one to be provoked out there, in that sense. They do not get a chance. What happens to these people is
that they very rarely find the right spirit. This is a time that we are living in. The 39 provokes to find the
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spirit. That is its true nature. That is the first line. The fifth line is how everybody else sees it. How
everybody else sees it as wrong. What they see is that provocation should not be necessary and it is
something to be avoided. If provocation is avoided, no spirit can be found. These people are projected on
that they are single-minded, that they are the ones that can get it done. They do not run into any problems
because they do not get the constant provocation because other people are very aware of this capacity in
them.
Neptune exalted. The imagination to establish new patterns that make the obstacles irrelevant. The
moment that the obstacles are irrelevant, the spirit is gone. Think about that. The moment that it is
projected on you that you are provocative, so "let's not provoke them," there is no chance to find the
spirit. But this is what the totality wants out of that fifth line. This is their projection on what this fuel is
all about.
The Mars in detriment. Simple hardheadedness. Though less exalted, it can often result in success and
gather support by its very determination. It is amazing how many people are mutated by these 39.5's
because, rather than going through the provocation with them, they just accept whatever it is in the mood,
and they can often pull people along with them, but the spirit is missing. This is the whole thing. It is so
important that when you are working with people that have the 39th gate, that they truly understand what
provocation is for. It is there to find the right spirit. The right spirit is the spirit that is not provoked. You
can cheat by doing the fifth line number. The fifth line number is, "Let's see. There does not seem to be
any provocation out there, so everything is okay" It does not work that way.
In our evolutionary process, we are slowly moving towards the sixth line. We are actually in the fifth line
phase which is the great projected phase. So, we have the most complex Maya now that the planet has
ever had. We have an enormous projected Maya around us. That is the density of the fifth line.
Everything about our world is about projection now, our concepts about each other, the universe, and god.
All of that is part of a vast projection field and all of that is through the fifth line, universalization,
because we are all living this global village consciousness. It is part of the process to go through this fifth
line phase so we can complete all of that because the spirit comes afterwards. It can't come now. It does
not exist now.
39.6 The Troubleshooter
The Troubleshooter is an American Western term. They used to have these characters that could take you
across the country in carriages. The person who was sitting beside the driver was called the
troubleshooter. If any trouble came along, this person would shoot it. This is where the word
'troubleshooter' comes from.
Like all sixth lines, we have a transition field here. It goes beyond the nature of the hexagram and looks
for much more. What the 39.6 is looking at is, "Can we get this mutation into the world and, once it is in
the world, will it be of value to humanity?' That is its process. You can see what the beauty of
provocation is, at its highest level. Provocation, at its highest level, is nothing more than the capacity to
go to somebody else and provide them, empower them, with mutation. "I know what is wrong with your
life." "Get out of my face," is the answer of a lot of people who do not like anybody coming up to them to
tell them what their problem is. "Can I help you with this? Can I show you how to do this?"
Nothing is more provocative in this life than somebody coming up to you and telling you what is wrong
with you, and that they will fix it. Due to the nature of sixth lines, most of these troubleshooters never
look for trouble and do not shoot. They just hope that the riot will be very quiet and everything will be
okay. Their inherent gift is this capacity of penetrating to the core of what somebody's dilemma is. Not
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their own. Recognize how altruistic and special that is. Mutation is for the whole specie and never for the
individuals. It is for the whole specie. Otherwise, it is of no value.
So, the ultimate field here is as it says in the white book: The energy to provoke others by attempting to
solve their problems. The 39 is provoking to find the right spirit. So, anybody who is going to listen to
these very gifted people is the right spirit. To be able to offer this mutation is a very gifted fuel: those
people take the mutation and move it along.
In the black book it says: The natural gift for solving problems. It is a gift. What that ultimately means is
that the final stage in our process, this mutation, will solve our problems. To get rid of these bodies is one
way to solve our problems. It is just about changing the equipment. But nonetheless, you get to the point
that you have problem-solving. What you will also have is when the 39 really has this capacity and when
we get to the stage where the mutation takes place, it is a natural gift that will be accepted by others
because they are a very important mutative force.
Moon exalted. Practicality and the ability to guide and nurture others. These people get blown off so fast.
In our work together, we are dealing with our adult consciousness, but you start your life with your
design. If you have a 39.6 child and it says to you, "I don't think that you know what you are doing in the
kitchen," or "You don't know how to run the computer," think about what happens to this 39.6 child. They
have a natural gift for solving problems but it is provocative and they get rejected a lot for that
provocation. That puts them in a bad mood because we are dealing with a mood gate and they feel terrible
and then they say, "I don't care. I won't help them or tell them what is wrong. They will give me a hard
time. They will not do that." Always remember that when you are looking at any line, think about it first
as a child's line before you think about it as an adult line. You get to see that so much of what is there in
the beginning is already deeply conditioned by the forces around it and so few of these aspects get a
chance to flourish because of that.
All 39 children know what that is like. That provocation always was in them. They already provoked you
as a baby. Some of these babies get thrown against walls. Recognize that you start your life with your
design and see it in that perspective, and then you begin to understand what it may or may not be like. In
most cases, 39.6's do not provoke anything. It is rare. It has to do with the spirit that is available. If there
is the right spirit, there is the opportunity for them to always release their wisdom. All sixth lines carry the
potential of wisdom. They can release the wisdom of what the problem is and how to solve that problem.
Remember that it is a genetic gift. There is no awareness here. It is simply the capacity in that fuel to deal
with any dilemma and to be able to mutate it.
On the other side: The emotional drive to dominate that provokes others. In the black book we have Mars
in detriment. Ego dominance that generally abuses this gift for self-aggrandizement and personal ambition
rather than for the benefit of others. It is so difficult for these people when they are growing up because
they can't solve problems if they go the other way. They insist for the rest of their lives that they are the
only ones in the world that can solve any problem and that others had better pay attention to them or
nothing is going to happen. Both of those stances are not provoking at all when it is obvious that it is
there because we take in each other's auras. Or provoking insistently and again, remember that most of the
time, the potential of the sixth line does not come out because it has already been held back in the youth.
There will be exceptions.
When we have the transition that is going to take place, when this movement takes place and this begins
to open up, these people will really be of value in society. It will be a time for them when they will
flourish because their gifts are essential to maintain the spirit field. The individual stream maintains it.
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Remember that the 39 is coming out of the root center. The Troubleshooters are under enormous pressure
to solve problems. They have no other way. That is their nature and they have to recognize when not to
provoke. "If I can't solve your problems, I will stop eating." We have people who do that all the time.
That is the ultimate 39.6 provocation. "You do not treat us well in our independence movement, so will
we all stop eating." Or the other way around: people who can't solve the problem and get fat.
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HEXAGRAM 40 DELIVERANCE
The heart center and the Self are of enormous significance to us. The G center and the heart center are
part of the most basic and primary infrastructure that is built within us. They both represent qualities that
are often deeply confused: the relationship between the Self and the T. In looking at the ego gates and the
gates of the G, we are going to distinguish very clearly between the natures of these two.
In dealing with the ego, a picture of the tribal circuitry gives an impression of the importance of the heart
center and the ego in our mundane lives. It is absolutely essential for humanity to function out of its ego.
This is why we have civilizations and cultures (friendship is one of the best examples of this) that are
always caught up in the ego, in how great they are, or have been.
Ego is intrinsic to the nature of what the tribe is all about. Everything about tribal circuitry is rooted in the
ego. More than that, the 51, which is missing in this picture of tribal circuitry, is also tribal even though it
is deeply individual. As part of individual circuitry, it serves the tribe. It is directly connected to the tribe.
The way in which we are going to look at the heart center is through its two primary functions, which are
willpower in the 40th gate leading to the 51st gate, and ego or the possessiveness of the T in the 26th gate
leading to the 21st gate.
The heart center is very complex. It is obviously misunderstood. Egoism is something that is put down in
the Eastern side of our world, this quality of the T and its possessiveness. When you are looking at the
ego, you are looking at a biological complexity that is unlike any other center that we have. We will look
at these very important functions. Willpower begins with the stomach which is part of the heart center,
like the heart muscle itself which is in the 21 st gate, or the gall bladder which is in the 51 st gate, or the
thymus gland which generates our immune system which is in the 26th gate. We have a very complex
center here, in terms of how it moves its information out into the biological structure.
The stomach and the heart give you a deep insight into the nature of how the ego works. The ego, the will,
can never work consistently. It is very important to grasp this. Willpower can only last so long under
certain circumstances and then it has to give up, in the same way that your heart needs to beat. It cannot
hold the tone. There has to be the space in between. There has to be this moment of tension and then
relaxation. The same thing is true for the nature of the stomach. You cannot feed the stomach all day. It is
not possible. The stomach needs to have its time of rest and then it needs to have its time of work. In
understanding the nature of the ego, it is important to see that it is always looking for rest. This is
something about the ego that is not really understood. It is not looking to go out and to shine, to send out
its willpower. It is basically looking to rest until there is exactly the right timing to release that energy, so
that the release of that energy is productive because the ego itself knows that it can only be active so long.
In other words, unless you really have the will, you are not able to climb that mountain.
The ego recognizes that it must have the resource and, at the same time, in order to get there, it knows that
it has to rest. This makes the will something that is not always easy for others because it is unlike any of
the other motors. When you turn on the generator, you turn it on for life until death, frequency after
frequency, on and on and on. When you turn on the emotional system, you have a lifelong wave. When
you turn of the adrenaline system, the pressure never goes away. It is constant. The thing about the ego is
that it works and then it goes on vacation. That is the nature of the ego.
The ego mechanic, here, in the white book: A will or lack of will to provide for the needy. This is the role
of the 40th gate. In English, Deliverance has several meanings: Jesus delivered people from their sins. To
be delivered is almost equivalent to being brought to satori, or enlightenment. To be delivered from evil is
in the Lord's Prayer. Deliverance carries with it quite a substantial value as a mundane process: to be the
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one that delivers is synonymous with being a breadwinner. If you deliver, you bring home the goods so
that everybody can eat. Deliverance also has a high mystical and spiritual value to it.
The very name of this gate is what is really demanded of the ego. The tribe needs the ego to express its
power. Willpower is something that does not operate in a fixed pattern. All of us know that by the way we
eat. You can be fairly regular in your eating but you can also have all kinds of variations that run in
between. Only when the ego system builds up its proper readiness is it going to use that willpower. When
the willpower is there, its purpose is to provide for those who need. The byproduct of that is that the
deliverer may in fact do well themselves, but the thing that drives their ego is the need of those who call
upon it. This is classic in the nature of the 40/37, in the channel of Community, in terms of the marriage
contract. This is the channel of the marriage contract in sexuality. The reality is that the 40 is expected to
deliver. The 40 and its ego is expected to go out there in the world and conquer the material plane and, in
return, it will have its ego massaged.
The whole thing to understand about the 40th gate is that it is not the big powerful will. We find the
strong will in the 51st gate. Rather, the 40 is the potential of will that can be built up or inflated by others.
The ego is simply lazy and basically wants to rest, "Yes, I can do it but, please, I need my rest first before
I will try that." Before the ego gets going, it has to have something on the other side that says, "You are
really wonderful," or "There is nothing in the refrigerator and you have to go out and do something about
it." The fact is that the ego needs to be worked on. If it does not get worked on, if it does not get massaged
or pumped up, it says, "Sorry, I am tired today and I don't feel like doing it. I will just sit here."
Above the lines, the key to everything about the 40th gate, it says: The point of transition between
struggle and liberation. This is the whole business of understanding the ego. It has its time for struggle
and then it has its required liberation, to be free of the struggle. No ego can stay with struggle. This is
something so important to understand. You can only push will so far.
40.1 Recuperation
When we get to the beginning of any hexagram structure, we begin with the first line in the lower trigram.
Remember that the lower trigram does not know that there is anything else at the other end of the channel.
So, they are not social and are quite surprised, even though it happens to be a social channel, the channel
of the social marriage contract, in that sense. The first three lines are not socially gifted. First lines are
only interested in the foundation. They themselves tend to be invisible. In other words, they are the kind
of ego you can't find to tell them that the refrigerator is empty. They are out in the backyard somewhere
having a snooze. They don't want to have anything to do with that. While they are lying there, they are
trying to figure out if willpower is something of value in the first place.
The first line, which always represents the essence of any hexagram, is called Recuperation. It tells you
what the ego requires. It can only be used for so long and then it must have its rest. If you look at any
kind of long-term relationship of couples where the man comes home from work and just throws himself
on the sofa and turns on the TV and blares out his brain, and there is this whole list of things that he could
be doing. You can't ask him. If you do that, it will create problems because that willpower is also ego.
"Don't bother me now." The ego must have its rest. When you give it its rest, everything works.
The ability to relax and enjoy the fruits of one's labors. Whenever I see somebody with this line, I always
remind them of one thing: Your friends are only of value to you as long as they don't take you aside and
say, "Excuse me, you really have a problem." For this kind of person, friendship is not having people tell
them that they have a problem that their willpower has to deal with, that they have to go out and do
something about. They just want to be able to relax. They will do their work if you let them relax. They
need to relax.
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This is true for the stomach. It is very important for any human being to understand the nature of
nutrition. You cannot eat if you are not hungry anymore than willpower can be used if it is not the right
time and the person who has that capacity does not want to be involved in that process. This is
devastating for the system. It is extremely unhealthy and creates what people call ulcers. It creates all
kinds of difficulties within the physical stomach itself.
The Moon is in detriment. The Moon cannot stand still. The whole thing about this is that this 40th gate,
though it requires its rest, it cannot just rest. If it can rest when it comes home from work, it has to get up
the next day and go out into the world and do its thing. In the social context, these are people who do not
stay with the same relationships in their lifetime. Their communities and families go through changes
because what they are looking for is to be left in peace.
In the white book: The ego strength to enjoy being alone. The 40th gate says, "I don't need you." This is
not true. The 40th gate and the 26th gate are gates of denial. It is in their mechanism to say, "Don't bother
me now." In order to get the ego to do anything, you have to massage it. That is why this "don't bother
me" is not true. Otherwise, it will say, "I will stay alone," and the other says, "Oh, no you can't. We really
need you. We have to have you. You are so important to us." They have to be pulled into the game.
The other side is: The ego uncomfortable with being alone too long. After the 40th gate had its rest, it
says, "Why isn't there anybody around being nice to me and asking me to go to work? And who needs
me? Why doesn't somebody need met" So, they are ready to look for somebody who will need them, so
that their ego can be puffed up and they can go out and come back and say, "Hey, don't bother me now.
I'm getting my rest."
40.2 Resoluteness
When you are dealing with the second line, you are dealing with a light on inside the house and people
can see in. Wherever you have the second line, you have to learn in life that other people see things in you
that you don't see yourself. The 40th hexagram is about aloneness in the ego sense, as we have seen. The
ego requires its time for rest. It seeks to be alone so that it is not pulled on as an ego force. The second
line does not know very much about being social and other people. Other people are walking by its house,
looking through its window and they say, "This one is alone, but this one can have a very strong will. If
we can get to this one, it is able to do something for us." All of a sudden, the 40 is surprised that there is
somebody there that is pulling on their willpower.
Resoluteness. The power and authoriy in deliverance... (aloneness) ... to shed forever the qualities which
hampered liberation. In other words, for the second line, aloneness is something that is very healthy. It is
good for them. After all, they don't know how to deal with the outside anyway, so they are stuck on the
inside.
When you come to the detriment, you have: A natural peacefulness that in deliverance may sympathize
with and attempt to nurture the forces which hampered liberation. By the way, liberation is just a word for
rest. It is better to be alone than having people around who constantly pull you into work. That is what
this line is saying at its exalted side, but at its detriment side it is saying that one is defenseless in that
moment that people look inside, see that you have the will and come and get it.
One of the jokes about me is that my second line is a projection. I project out that I am alone, but it is
actually not that difficult to come up to me and ask me something, to come into my aura. There are people
who know how to get in and take that.
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The power through aloneness to recognize the importance and the potential disruptive effect of others.
"What they are going to get me into now?" This is what you learn. All second lines collapse under
recognition because this is what a second line is about. This is how they learn. All of a sudden, somebody
sees something in you that you don't know is there. People are seeing in me that there is some chance to
make a bargain, and I don't even know that is there. They can see that.
The other side is: The power of loneliness to blind the ego to the possible disruptive effect of others.
When somebody gets in, because the second line doesn't know what to do with others, it is basically
stuck, and it ends up getting pulled into things. The basic demand of the ego: "Would you do me a favor?"
Anyone who is coming to the ego is coming for its will and its capacity to do things. The aloneness in this
gate is all about saying, "I'll be with you sometimes. But the rest of the time, leave me alone." Most of the
people think that is very personal. In other words, they take it as a psychological statement rather than
what it is. It is a pure ego statement. Willpower can only work so much. What happens to the second line
is that it really gets disrupted because they don't really know what is going on inside of them. They are
just busy in their aloneness.
40.3 Humility
Before you get to the Pluto exalted in this line, you have an overview statement that says: A calculated
mode in deliverance to avoid attracting the attention of negative forces. Whenever you see an introduction
in a line before the exalted and the detriment, that is telling you that you are dealing with a lifelong
process, an ongoing process, and really is not something that is dealt with properly until one matures in
life. All third lines are lines of adaptation, and as such are lines of trial and error.
It will be, in this line of Humility, a trial and error process to find out about aloneness, and to find out in
your aloneness how not to attract negative forces. It does not mean that you don't attract them. It actually
means that you will attract negative forces until you finally learn: better to be alone than to have this one
or that one in your life. Remember that this is fundamentally social and communal, so it really is about
the other in that sense.
Pluto exalted. The subtlety to enjoy deliverance... (being alone) ...without having to Haunt it. This is like
not telling everybody, "You have to work and I can rest. I have done mine." It is not about that. It is about
enjoying your quiet time, your time between having to use the willpower.
Mars in detriment. The ego arrogance that demands attention and gets it. In the white book, it gives you a
clear picture. It says: The capacity of the ego to avoid negative forces even if it means being alone. This is
what the ego has to learn in the third line. It is better to be alone than to deal with negative forces.
In the detriment: The capacity of the ego to demand attention. And it gets it, which means that, literally,
that ego ends up doing all kinds of things that it shouldn't, with the wrong influences in his life. It is so
important to understand that the power of the will is dependant on the massage. If you have a 40 football
team and you put them on the field where they are at home, and you have 40,000 people shouting their
name, pumping them up, they will play better than if there are only ten people and they are all booing. In
other words, the power of the will is always dependant on who is pulling on that will.
The 'negative forces' are those forces that do not allow that will to operate properly, or for that rest to be
allowed in between. It is a trial and error process. It will take time in the life to develop that. They are
better off alone than having to deal with negative forces. They are not better off alone in general. No ego
can be alone forever. It must go out and do its business, but it is better to be alone than to be with negative
forces. You have forces (other people) that say, "I need you to do this. You have to work." If that ego
does not have the power to do that, does not feel like doing that, does not have strength to do that, it is
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dealing with negative forces because they are pulling on it to do something that is not natural for them.
Then it is better to be alone. Aloneness has to do with the stomach. You can only be alone so long before
you go hungry. You have to feed yourself. You have to look after yourself. That is what the willpower is
for. In the third line, it is a learning process.
40.4 Organization
With the fourth line, we come to the upper trigram, to a transpersonal process which is taking place in a
social channel here. The fourth to sixth lines have specific social skills. Fourth lines are fixed and one-
pointed. They are unidirectional, one-tracked.
The fourth line here is: The power to transform and the intuitive intellect to select and organize for the
purpose of maintaining deliverance. All this means is: when you know that there is another side, how
much work do you have to give them to keep them happy and quiet so that they continue to massage your
ego and you'll have your chance for rest? In other words, the more you have your life together on the
material plane, your job, your work, it is all very healthy. This is being organized. Being able to do your
work and then having the time to be able to relax.
The Mars in detriment is different though. An uncontrollable zeal that ignores the quality of support in
preference for the quantity, which in the long run may destabilize deliverance. These are people that drop
dead from work. These are workaholics. We are dealing with a fourth line, so you are dealing with this
fixed externalization. They are really onetracked. "I will get my will out, and then I have to rest." When
you get to the detriment, it is all about, "Oh, this one wants me. Okay, I will do this work. This one wants
me; I will get my will out." As long as they keep on getting their ego massaged, it can be very dangerous.
The fourth line in the white book: The power of the ego when organized and active to maintain
separateness. Organize actively, do your ego work, and pull away and have your rest. In the same way as
human beings do when they eat, they should have a chance to rest afterwards. It is healthy for them. In
Spain, they have these big 'siestas.' You eat, and then everything is closed and there is nothing to do for
hours, and it is correct. This is great for the stomach.
On the other side: The empowering of the ego through the capacity to organize others. The more they get
into that organization, the less time they have left. They are so busy dealing with using their will that they
don't take their rest. And again, this is something that is essential. We cannot overwork the ego. The more
you overwork it, the less productive it becomes.
40.5 Rigidity 
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